Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Cast Assessment

Dear readers, I would like to welcome you back to “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to.  That said, I cannot do so in this case, due to the fact that the world is ending.  

Yes, hell hath frozen over, pigs are flying, the whole works.  We have hit the apocalypse, my friends.  How do I know this?  We had a cast release on a Tuesday.  You know, the day “Survivor” does not air on.  We have broken one of the immutable laws of the universe.  Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.  Force equals mass times acceleration.  “Survivor” casts drop on the same day of the week that episodes premier on.  And since I haven’t heard about the show switching to “Tuesdays”, this can only mean the world is coming to an end.  

Still, I suppose we might as well enjoy ourselves while we await our inevitable demise.  Let’s take a look at my thoughts on this new cast, starting with…

Claire Rafson (25, Tech Investor, Brooklyn, NY, Soka Tribe): Starting strong out of the gate, Claire is one of my two picks to win the whole thing.  Yes, seriously.  The woman is just too solid a competitor.  She compares herself to two solid winners in Michele Fitzgerald and Natalie Anderson (“Survivor Kaoh Rong” and “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, respectively), and makes a good note of what qualities she needs to utilize from both.  Specifically Michele’s social game and Natalie’s willingness to cut ties when necessary.  A blend a likability and cutthroatness can be lethal, game-wise, and all in a very unassuming package.  Admittedly Claire doesn’t seem like she’ll be the BEST in the outdoors or in challenges, but she doesn’t seem like she’ll be a sink in either area either, and given that her tribe seems like it’s the most well-rounded in challenges overall, I suspect she’s in it for the long haul.  If you REALLY want me to find weaknesses in her game, I would probably say her age and her pet peeves.  Claire is on the younger side for a winner, but as Maryanne taught us in “Survivor 42”, it’s by no means a deal-breaker, and I think this self-described “queer black Jewish woman” has those skills, helped by the fact that she’s clearly a longtime fan (something that, as I’ll discuss later, does not seem to be as universal amongst this cast as it has been in recent seasons).  Slightly more concerning is her pet peeve, which is people who are not self-aware, something that can describe many a previous contestant, and will doubtless apply to some this season.  Given her savvy, plus her tribe’s possible lack of early votes, I think Claire can ride this out for the long haul, and emerge as our eventually winner.  I know, I usually pick two winners, and still intend to do so this season.  But put a gun to my head, and force me to pick just one, I’m going with Claire.  Plus, the woman listens to young-adult novels on tape to go to sleep (specifically “The Hunger Games” in her case), and can I just say, I feel seen?

Matt Blankinship (27, Software Engineer, San Francisco, CA, Soka Tribe): This guy stole my first name, he stole my hairdo.  Man’s just a thief overall!  I kid, I kid.  Either way, though, I suspect this guy will be rewarded like a thief, and receive a harsh sentence.  That sentence, in this case, being an early exit.  Matt had better hope that his tribe truly IS the dominant one of the season, because I see him going at their first Tribal Council.  Given the makeup of the tribes, I doubt he’s the overall first boot, but when the opportunity arises, he’s toast.  There’s several of the “nerd” archetype this season, and while not the most egregious example of this, Matt is the most clearly visible.  Everyone nowadays knows this archetype is a threat, and coupled with a usual lack of skills in non-puzzle-based challenges (which, admittedly, are becoming as rare as hen’s teeth these days), they are an easy early target.  It takes a great deal of skill to overcome this obstacle, and while Matt is far from the worst person I’ve ever seen in terms of game sense, he’s no genius in that territory either.  The thing that clinches Matt’s poor chances for me is him talking about his failures in life.  It is refreshing to someone so open about their past mistakes, admittedly.  He chickened out for applying for the show the first time.  He failed to get a job.  He failed college.  It’s good, uplifting stuff that he kept on fighting in spite of this, but does not bode well for a winning game.  Matt is a pre-merge boot, but hey, maybe he can learn from this failure, and find success on a returnee season?  Stranger things have happened.  

Carolyn Wiger (35, Drug Counselor, Hugo, MN, Tika Tribe): Remember how I said people in psychology and psychology-related fields, unless they are Denise Stapely of “Survivor Philippines”, don’t do well on the show?  Yeah, don’t be looking for Carolyn to buck that trend.  Seems we’re getting all my extreme takes out of the way early, since Carolyn is my pick for first boot of the season.  While by no means “old”, she definitely fits the mold the show has for an “older woman”, one of the more vulnerable archetypes to be perceived as at the beginning of the season.  Carolyn also lists a lot of worldly things that she likes, makeup and potato chips and whatnot, that make me question how well she will do in the outdoors, only making her more vulnerable.  On top of that, when asked to compare herself to a previous player, Carolyn says she’s most like Noura of “Survivor Island of the Idols”.  About the best thing that this comparison says about Carolyn is that she has good self-knowledge.  Yeah, Noura ain’t exactly the comparison you want to make if you’re looking for success in this game.  Yes, Noura made it deep, but that was in part due to a large win streak from her tribe, giving other people time to rub the tribe the wrong way.  While I maintain that there will be no “disaster tribe” for this season, if there IS one on some off-chance, it will likely be Tika, putting Carolyn in an early vulnerable spot.  IF she somehow makes the merge, expect her to go deep as a goat, but unfortunately for her, I expect her to have a very short shelf-life this season.  Good on her for doing the real-life work she does, though.  Very necessary, but very difficult.  

Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho (36, Salon Owner, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tika Tribe): One of two contestants currently living in a US territory at the time of casting this season, Yam Yam bookends the unintended theme this blog of “Get the extreme takes out early”.  Yes, Yam Yam is my second winner pick for this season.  You may remember Yam Yam from the preview we got at the end of “Survivor 43”.  He was the guy excited to poop in the ocean.  This may have you thinking “Well, the guy will be a fun character for sure, but winner equity?  Not seeing it.”  But as Maryanne proved on “Survivor 42”, being a good character and being a good strategist are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  In fact, Yam Yam’s personality could work to his advantage, as his strategizing won’t make him as visible a threat, thanks to his “wacky” exterior.  The man has admitted to surviving 90 days without electricity following a hurricane, so I’m going to say he’s got survival bona fides.  Yes, his challenge prowess might not be the best, but unless his tribe goes the route of Vesi last season, and cuts off their worst at challenges when they just can’t take it any more, Yam Yam is here for the long haul.  People will want to keep him around for his humor, and I’m confident he could use his charm to his advantage.  Man compares himself to Cirie Fields (“Survivor Exile Island”) for a reason, and he’s the only person I’ve yet seen to have NO pet peeves listed in his bio whatsoever (though that could just be a quirk of “Entertainment Weekly”, where I usually go to read them).  Honestly, the only concern I have with Yam Yam is that he DOES remind me so much of Maryanne.  She may have proved big characters can still be good at strategy, but her doing so means people will be on the watch for such a game.  Given that “Survivor 42” was the last season this cast saw, it will be VERY fresh in their minds, and that could put Yam Yam in trouble.  Otherwise, expect him to be around in the end.  Besides, he’s endorsed by Sandra Diaz-Twine (“Survivor Pearl Islands”), and who am I to disagree with The Queen?

Lauren Harpe (31, Elementary School Teacher, Mont Belvieu, TX, Ratu Tribe): After several novella’s worth of character bits to talk about, we finally have someone who we can go over without some big rant involved.  Lauren should do fairly well in this game, but aside from her hair, which is awesome, I don’t expect her to make any big waves in this game.  I think she should have some good skills interpersonally.  After all, managing a bunch of elementary school kids is one of the undersold toughest jobs in this day and age.  And mad respect to her for raising kids as a single mom, another undersold tough job.  Her pet peeve is a bit concerning, in people who don’t own up to their mistakes, but I’ve seen people with way worse peeves do well, so I won’t hold that much against her.  I don’t see Lauren being the major mover and shaker in an alliance, but she seems skilled enough to work her way into the core of a major alliance, and probably hang on until the early-to-mid merge or so, where she’ll be taken out as a safe boot.  Possibly she’s even one of the “split tribal” boots at the final 10, assuming they bring that back again.  Not knocking my socks off, but a solid player I predict will do decently well.  

Danny Massa (32, NYC Firefighter, Bronx, NY, Soka Tribe): While perhaps not quite to the same degree, Danny is very much the Jonathan Young (“Survivor 42”) of this cast.  Not so much in the sense that he will win challenges single-handedly, but in the sense that physically, he’s head and shoulders above the rest of the cast.  That said, I don’t see much strategic chops from him beyond surface-level stuff, and his pet peeves are the most concerning so far.  Bullies and whining are both decently common on this show, and I could see them getting under Danny’s skin.  On the flip side, however, this makes Danny a very good alliance member.  Skilled in team challenges, loyal, but not bright enough to strategize against you in any threatening way.  As with most challenge beasts, Danny will be a target as soon as the merge hits, and unless he gets an alliance as tight as Jonathan’s, will probably be out in the early-to-mid merge area.  

Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt (43, Engineering Manager, Pittsburgh, PA, Soka Tribe): For her own sake, Heidi had better hope her tribe IS a major force in the challenges, because if things shake out relatively even in terms of who goes to Tribal Council, she is an easy early target.  I love her enthusiasm, and we stan a board-game lover on this blog, but the fact simply is that Heidi is the oldest person on her tribe, and that person is almost always vulnerable early on.  Add onto that someone who self-describes as “loud”, a personality trait that gets very irritating very quickly when you can’t get away from it, and an enthusiasm for the game that, while admirable, frequently leads to playing too hard, too fast, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a pre-merge boot.  Her pet peeve, “rude people”, doesn’t help matters any further.  Again, unless her tribe just completely bodies the immunity challenges, I don’t see Heidi having much of a shot moving forward.  About the only other thing worth mentioning is that she is one of a few people this season to mention Angelina Keeley (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”) in their “who are you most like?” question, something that doesn’t really impact my thoughts on how they’ll do, but DOES point to an interesting trend that I’ll discuss more when we come to the final thoughts on the cast/season preview overall.  

Carson Garrett (20, NASA Engineering Student, Atlanta, GA, Tika Tribe): It’s revenge of the nerds!  Carson is the second (of three) overt “nerd” archetypes this season, and like with Matt before him, I think it helps spell his doom.  Man’s certainly got the studying down, though.  3-D printing puzzles to practice them beforehand.  Studying up on the statistics of the game.  Correctly identifying himself with Christian Hubicki (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”).  The man is doing his best to set himself up for success, and I do like the guy.  Man loves board games in general, and Settlers of Catan in particular.  Can’t fault him for that.  But the man has too many little things working against him.  I mentioned the “nerd” archetype being a threat, but the fact is that he’s just too young for me to consider him doing well.  I know I said Maryanne proved that age is less of a factor than we might have previously thought, but there is a limit to how low one can go, and I’m just not sure this guy has enough life experience to connect with people, and consequently do well in this game.  Finally, there’s his tribe.  I doubt Carson will be the FIRST target from his tribe, he needs to not go to Tribal Council too-often pre-merge, yet finds himself on probably the worst tribe for challenges.  Rough luck, my dude.  Another pre-merge boot in my opinion.  As an aside, the man DOES have probably the longest list of pet peeves, but most of them, apart from mosquitoes, are things he’s unlikely to encounter on the island, though I suppose production could put him on a tribe with negative vibes/moon-landing-deniers just to mess with him.  

Maddy Pomilla (28, Charity Projects Manager, Brooklyn, NY, Ratu Tribe): Not content to have Elie Scott (“Survivor 43”) on just once, production let her change her name, occupation, and location, then brought her back immediately.  Apart from physical resemblance, Maddy and Elie exude the same energy.  Decently game-savvy, but still overestimating themselves, and energetic to the point of annoyance.  Maddy will be a strategist, but an overly-visible one, and therefore an easy target.  Given the large merge sizes of recent seasons, expect Maddy to be our merge boot, or perhaps our “Mergeatory” boot, if that’s really what we’re calling it now.  Too visible not to take out at an opportunity when an easy consensus boot is needed.  She will burn brightly, but burn (relatively) fast.  

Bruce Perreault (46, Insurance Agent, Warwick, RI, Tika Tribe): Our oldest contestant (though admittedly only by a few years) on this season, I would not blame you for not expecting Bruce to be that old at first glance.  True, the man does not look like a spring chicken, but you could easily shave 10 years off his age, and I’d believe it.  This implies he’s relatively fit, ergo not a challenge sink, ergo less likely to be targeted for that reason.  That said, there ARE reasons to be concerned about his game, at least in my opinion.  While the man is in insurance, thereby effectively a salesman and presumably social, the man gives the shortest answers by far in his bio.  A welcome break in reading, to be sure, but does not imply, to me at least, good sociability.  Think of him like Rocksroy (“Survivor 42”): Not unlikeable, but very set in his ways and not going to sugarcoat stuff.  He’s one of two players who very much give off “dad vibes” this season.  Useful on a tribe that’s likely to be fairly chaotic early, but could also isolate him.  I think Bruce needs to hope for a very even split of Tribal Council attendance in the pre-merge, since there are people I’ve discussed on his tribe who would likely be targets before him.  If they ARE closer to the disaster tribe, his perceived lack of sociability will likely catch up to him, and Bruce will be out likely in the pre-merge, though probably the late pre-merge, if I had to guess.  

Sarah Wade (27, Management Consultant, Chicago, IL, Tika Tribe): If someone can ride out the chaos that is this tribe, my money’s on Sarah.  Apart from her career implying she knows how to handle disparate personalities, the woman is a long-time fan, and so knows the game quite well, while appearing unassuming, another deadly combination in this game.  Not enough stands out about her for me to really go so far as to say she’ll win, but she was definitely one I considered for the title, and will probably make it far regardless.  Mid-to-late merge I’d say.  Her pet peeves are relatively unassuming (loud chewing, rule followers, close minded/inflexible people), though she could run into some in the game, another slight mark against her.  Also, she references multiple times how the passing of a close friend inspires her in life.  A tragedy for her, and my heart goes out to her for her loss, but expect her to be the one we get MULTIPLE flashbacks to.  No way the show isn’t milking that for all it’s worth.  

Matthew Grinstead-Mayle (43, Barbershop Owner, Columbus, OH, Ratu Tribe):  Hoo boy.  Let’s tally the list, shall we?  This guy shares my first name.  He lives in the same metropolitan area as me.  We bear some superficial similarities, being large, hirsute, barrel-chested guys with bushy beards.  This guy is my favorite of the season in part because I’m basically OBLIGATED to root for him at this point.  So, do I think he’ll win?  Eh… I think he’ll make the merge, at least.  The dude gives off SERIOUS dad vibes, even more so than Bruce whom we just discussed.  Not a bad thing, but it makes me question how good he’ll be at the game once things really get cutthroat.  On top of that, dude has a LOT of pet peeves.  Admittedly, most of these are food-related, and unlikely to come up, but the two that AREN’T, specifically people who talk in circles and people who dominate the conversation (or presumably both), are something he’ll have to watch out for.  While I appreciate him comparing himself to Elaine Stott (“Survivor Island of the Idols”), an underappreciated player, his further comparisons to Shan Smith (“Survivor 41”) and especially Ben Driebergen (“Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”) are concerning.  Admittedly his take on the former is that she was the social center, but should he bring in her cockiness, he might be in trouble.  As for Ben?  Well, a nice enough guy, but good strategist he ain’t.  I don’t see Matthew going SUPER early, but expect him out no later than the mid-merge, when the game just gets too cutthroat for him to keep up.  Of course, this is assuming he’s not one of the medevacs we saw in the season preview, since it seems like it was likely him falling off the rock in the preview.  He has the closest build, and does have the right buff color, assuming no swap.  Then again, these previews also made us think Tori Meehan was getting an idol on “Survivor 42”, so I’m not going to go so far as to say he IS for certain a medevac.  

Helen Li (29, Product Manager, San Francisco, CA, Tika Tribe): Rounding out this tribe is the OTHER person I have confidence can ride this thing out, regardless of if the tribe ends up being a disaster.  Helen’s another bona fide fan, making good references from recent seasons (comparing herself to Erika Casupanan of “Survivor 41”), all the way back to season 2 with Tina Wesson.  Preparing for the future while learning from the past.  I like this woman.  Her unassuming pet peeves help as well, as a lack of toilet paper and cars on the island mean two out of her three are non-factors.  Disrespectful people might be an issue, and that plus a potential lack of challenge prowess keep Helen from the winner’s spot for me.  Still, all else being equal, she should have the good game sense to weather early storms, and make the mid-to-late merge period.  I’d even have her as a dark horse to win, if it comes to that.  

Josh Wilder (34, Surgical Podiatrist, Atlanta, GA, Soka Tribe): Josh seems nice.  Yeah.  That’s really all that needs to be said.  Dude is decently athletic, seems likable enough.  Should do well.  I don’t think he really has the killer instinct needed to be truly great, but unless he makes some major social gaffe none of us see coming, he should be safe.  No reason to vote him out early, and not enough of a strategic threat to be an immediate target come the merge.  Man is one of the better challenge competitors on paper this season, so expect his threat to rise in the mid-to-late merge, and see him go there.  Be aware, as well, that he’s another contestant who regrettably had tragic medical hardships at a (relatively, in some cases) young age.  Something called “Prune Belly Syndrome” at birth, necessitating a kidney transplant, and stomach cancer at age 25, necessitating the removal (and presumably transplant) of his stomach.  Dude’s been through a lot, and expect to hear it in multiple flashbacks.  In truth, I expect Josh’s biggest risk early game to be the fact that, due to the aforementioned transplants, he’s on immunosuppressants, and so I could see him getting some tropical disease that makes him one of the medevacs of the season, though I would hope that production, if they thought he was at that much greater a risk than others, would not have let him play the season in the first place.  

Jaime Lynn Ruiz (35, Yogi, Mesa, AZ, Ratu Tribe): Jaime wins the award for “Most Unusual Occupation” this season!  Good thing, too, as she’s not winning many other awards.  Similar to Carolyn, whom we discussed earlier, Jamie is not “old” by an objective measure, but fits the “older woman” archetype as far as this show is concerned, and that’s a problem.  She claims to be a day one fan, and perhaps she is, but comparisons only to recent seasons make me question that.  She’s another Angelina stan, and again, we’ll get into the significance of that later on.  She also has a lot of enthusiasm, as evidenced by a large number of all-caps words in her bio.  As a viewer, I appreciate it, but on the island, could be grating.  I will say she avoid any even mildly concerning pet peeves, but she’s likely the worst challenge performer on her tribe, so unless she has above and beyond social skills, I don’t see her lasting very long, unfortunately.  Chalk her up as another pre-merge boot.  

Kane Fritzler (25, Law Student, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Ratu Tribe): Rounding out our nerd trio is Kane, and he is an exception to my thoughts on these types this season.  That is to say, Kane will be voted out for reasons OTHER than his nerddom.  Don’t misunderstand, Kane has a few read flags.  Likely not the best in non-puzzle challenges.  Describes himself as “loud” which I’ve already expressed as a concern for others.  Admittedly not any concerning pet peeves, but this is little comfort.  No, sadly for Kane, he is doomed before he starts by his nationality.  What’s wrong with being Canadian, you might ask?  Erika and Maryanne, that’s what.  The last two times there has been an opportunity to do so, a Canadian has won this show.  This, in the minds of this case, who JUST saw “Survivor 42” end before coming out, makes Canadians a threat.  Possibly Kane can try and pass himself off as an American, but that’s a big lie to keep up, and if there’s somehow another spelling challenge, he’ll give himself away.  Unfortunately, by virtue of his place of birth, Kane is a goner.  Another pre-merge boot.  And to those who say “So two Canadians won back to back, no big deal!”, I would remind you that it took only ONE successful women’s alliance (after at least three failed attempts at one, if you’re being really picky about what constitutes an “attempt” at a “women’s alliance”) for contestants to have a fear of women’s alliances that arguably persists TO THIS DAY.  I give it at least 3-5 years before the paranoia dies down to the point where a Canadian can win again.  

Frannie Marin (23, Research Coordinator, Cambringe, MA, Soka Tribe): If I were to describe Frannie in one word, it would be “quirky”.  Not too surprising, considering she compares herself to this blog’s beloved Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”).  She also says that Sophie Clarke (“Survivor South Pacific”) and the Scarlet Witch are her heroes, which we can get behind.  Likability does not always translate into success, though, and these traits that we the audience love could end up being a detriment to Frannie’s game, if they are in excess.  Thankfully, Frannie also seems to be able to tone it down when needed, as evidenced by her not-too-wordy bio.  She’s also another with no listed pet peeves, though again, that could just be a hiccup of how I’m reading these bios.  Couple this with her likely being on the strongest overall tribe for challenges, and I see Frannie making it to the early-to-mid merge.  She’s not subtle enough to win, but should make it decently far, and will certainly be fun along the way.  

Brandon Cottom (30, Security Specialist, Newtown, PA, Ratu Tribe): We end our cast assessment with the most “celebrity” of these contestants.  His occupation may be “Security Specialist”, but Brandon is more well known as a linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.  Brandon pretty well fits the archetype we’ve come to expect for sports players on “Survivor”.  Decent, if not great, at challenges.  Generally charming, but not as much game sense.  A good team player who likely can’t win, but unless their fame is well-known, should make the mid-merge area or so.  Brandon is pretty bog-standard in this category, so I don’t see that much more needs to be said about him than that.  They wanted another by-the-book sports player on this show, and that’s what they got.  

And thus, we round out the cast assessment, and I am hyped.  While I struggled to find things to say about a LOT of the cast of “Survivor 43”, here I struggled to find people I DIDN’T have a lot of things to say about, for good and for ill.  That bodes well for at least an entertaining season.  But let’s talk about some miscellaneous topics, shall we?

No more delaying, time to address the Angelina in the room.  While it wasn’t as common as I thought on first read, it DID seem like people were mentioning Angelina more than they had in previous seasons.  What’s more, most of them were looking at her in a new light, saying she got a raw deal in the edit.  Is this some sort of Angelina Renaissance?  No, I think it’s an indication that, if these people are fans, they’re very RECENT fans.  Recall that “Survivor David vs. Goliath” was recently on Netflix, getting wider exposure than a lot of the other seasons of the show have had in some time.  It probably got a lot of new people interested in the show, thus explaining why Angelina seems to pop up, at least to me, more than she normally would.  This makes me doubt who deep their fandom is, but at the same time, this might be a good compromise.  I’m on the side of liking superfans on the show, but I can see the other side, who want people clueless about the game to prevent gameplay that feels overused.  As such, getting recent fans who know the game to a degree, but not encyclopedically, might be a good middle ground we can all enjoy.  

On a more negative note, I HATE these tribe names.  Apart from running afoul of my dislike of short tribe names, this season, perhaps more than any other, REALLY shows why staying in Fiji long-term is an issue.  Eventually, you run into similar sounding names, making it harder to distinguish tribes between seasons.  Here, I’ll do the rundown of similar names for the tribes right now: Ratu=Ravu, Soka=Soko, Tika=Tiva.  And that was just of the top of my head!  I’m sure I’d find more similarities if I actually did RESEARCH on this.  Not to mention, I’m surprised that the show was even ALLOWED to use “Ratu” for a tribe name.  I may not know much about Fijian culture, but one thing I DO know is the definition of “Ratu”, that being “chief”.  The OTHER thing I know is that Fijians are VERY picky about how the term gets used.  Jokes or irreverence for the term are a big no-no, and so I’m amazed, assuming they even had permission, that the show got to use it.  Even if so, though, it does not excuse the similar names.  Show, either come up with better names, or better yet, SHOOT IN LOCATIONS OTHER THAN FIJI!

Finally, while I did not consider medevacs in my placement predictions, and don’t think it’s fair to ask me to predict effectively an act of God with little outside evidence, here are who I think are the most likely medevac possibilities: Matthew due to the preview showing probably him falling off the rock, Lauren since we can assume Ratu loses someone besides Matthew from the preview and I think we would have remembered her hair, Carolyn due to her age/general lack of physical survival skills, and I’ll throw in Josh as a wild-card due to the immunosuppressants concern I voiced earlier.  

So there you have it, my thoughts on the cast!  Let me know what you all think, and assuming we’re still alive and the show is still airing in this apocalyptic hellscape, I look forward to blogging the premiere of “Survivor 44” for you all!  

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Finale: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations

Normally the top of the blog is where I joke around a bit before getting into the nitty gritty of the recap/analysis, but I’d like to be sincere for a moment: Were he alive today, I truly believe Gene Roddenberry would love “Survivor”, and particularly this season.  Say what you will about some of the new changes to the show, but one thing that has been consistently good is taking people from different walks of life, and showing them not just getting along and working together, but learning from each other and moving forward with new respect.  Given the man’s vision of the future, I can’t help but feel that he would enjoy it.  

Then again, there’s not much sex on “Survivor”.  Might be a deal-breaker for him.  

We start off our episode proper with Probst talking to the audience, and for once, I’m not really mad about it.  Probably because this is just an in-person replacement for the Probst narration of the now-extinct season recap, and honestly this is less cringe-worthy, since Probst doesn’t have to justify why some of the finalists that we the audience know can’t win could win.  Really, my only gripe about this proceeding is that they keep playing snippets of “Ancient Voices”, the theme song, over various clips, something they’ve been doing sporadically all season.  Much as I love the song, it just makes me long for its return.  GIVE US BACK OUR AWESOME INTRO, DAMMIT!

Our players proper start out happy that they have ousted the biggest jury threat left in the game, but also a little bummed at their new digs.  It’s a bit hard to blame them, given that they now have to start over from scratch, but they do, I think, oversell how hard it is a bit.  Yeah, it’s not a fun or pleasant experience, but for how little time you have left, not the end of the world.  

But, of course, fallout from Tribal Council must occur with a non-unanimous vote.  Now, people over these past couple seasons have been good about handling being on the wrong side of a vote at least semi-competently.  This season in particular I would say has had people playing this off well.  Yet it seems, every so often, someone must completely lose it.  Lindsay does not really acquit herself well here.  While she’s happy to have survived, she asks why exactly they couldn’t let her in on the Omar vote.  She’s particularly upset at Jonathan, since they were supposed to be “allied”.  Jonathan brings up the perfectly valid point that Lindsay drew first blood, and was working against him.  Lindsay accuses him of talking down to her, in confessional, and while that’s been true in the past, Jonathan’s actually pretty reasonable here.  Stonewalling, yes, but being pretty chill about the whole thing in general.  Saying that Lindsay was “aggressive” is maybe a step too far (seriously, is every woman who raises their voice at all to Jonathan “aggressive” in his mind), but at least somewhat more justified than with Drea, given that Lindsay was clearly frustrated.  

With the morning comes our misdirection.  Lindsay seems to be dead in the water, with Jonathan and Mike taking time out of their day to talk about how she needs to be the next to go.  How do we give Lindsay a chance?  Immunity aside, we have two plays that could be questionable at best.  Starting with the more unambiguously bad one, Mike, in an attempt to curry favor, suggests he might give Lindsay his idol, if he wins immunity.  Decent coddling, and certainly more believable than saying he’d give it to her no strings attached, but the flaws here are twofold.  One, after voting out Lindsay’s closest ally, it’s a tough sell even with Mike’s acting skills.  Two, Mike also promised Maryanne his idol LAST episode, so congratulations, you’ve lied to someone!  At least one of those people is likely to be on the jury, poisoning it against you!  Hope you like having to fight that battle at the end, Mike!  

Our other bit of strategy comes courtesy of Maryanne, who says that she doesn’t want Lindsay to go, since Lindsay is part of her endgame plan.  At first, my gut reaction was to dismiss this as Maryanne being cocky over her Omar boot last night.  Thinking she’s unbeatable now.  Maryanne is the favorite after Lindsay, but Lindsay still most likely beats her in the end.  Why, after all, would you want that person around?  But the more I thought about it, the more there is an argument for Maryanne wanting to keep Lindsay close.  

Consider that Mike and Jonathan are incredibly tight at this point.  Probably the tightest pair left in the game.  Also, if Lindsay’s out, the most likely to win challenges, assuming they don’t involve a complex puzzle or endurance (as final immunity challenges sadly rarely do these days).  Thus, with Lindsay gone, unless Maryanne herself wins final immunity, or Romeo, she’s likely going into fire making, something she may not be good at.  Conversely, as she’s the only person left Lindsay’s tight with, if Lindsay is in at four and wins immunity, she probably takes Maryanne to the end.  On the whole, I’d still say better to want Lindsay out, since again, she’s the only person left ahead of Maryanne in the “winner potential” at this point, but there is an argument to be made for Maryanne’s thought here.  

Still, immunity is probably the best chance that Lindsay has of making it past this vote.  Lucky for her, the challenge advantage found after the word scramble is back once again, and Lindsay is evidently good at word scrambles.  She gets it decently quickly and then runs around trying to find the thing.  No one else even finishes the scramble, though this is partly due to Maryanne sandbagging Jonathan and Mike’s attempts.  The clue ultimately says the advantage is in the sleeping giant’s toes, which, putting two and two together, Lindsay concludes is in the roots of a fallen tree.  Pretty standard deductive reasoning for “Survivor”.  But, PLOT TWIST, the advantage is NOT in a tree this time!  What spore of madness is this?!

Admittedly, said challenge advantage is CLOSE to a tree, but is hidden in a foot-shaped rock formation with a tree leaning against it.  As it seemed to be on the rocks rather than a tree, I’m going to say it was not related to a significant looking tree at this point.  

Oh, and Romeo tells us he made a fake idol.  Not that he really needs it, since everyone wants him in the end anyway, but it’s a decent effort.  His second-grade teacher must be proud.  

The challenge that Lindsay specifically got the advantage for is your standard “Ropes course to collect puzzle pieces”, with the puzzle this time giving us one last look at the ouroboros motif of the season.  Standard enough challenge for this point of the game, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen this challenge in particular, so I won’t fault it for being a repeat.  I WILL, however, fault it for being a LAME version of this challenge.  Usually, with a challenge like this, one goes to and from the bags of puzzle pieces via the ropes course.  This can lead to collisions and tie-ups, which help make for a fun, tense physical challenge.  Here, you only use the ropes going back, and run around the perimeter of the course to get to the puzzle pieces. Much less exciting!  Boo!

Fortunately, our players make up for this lack of excitement by bringing their own.  Like last season, Lindsay’s advantage is substantial, only having to untie one knot per bag instead of six.  Jonathan has a lead in spite of this, but this challenge involves a puzzle.  We already know he’s not winning.  Lindsay, however, falls off the plank bridge halfway through, and this costs her time that could have had her win.  See, with a challenge like this, it usually comes down to the puzzle, and this is no exception.  Even Romeo and Maryanne, easily the two slowest players left, make it to the puzzle.  Granted, Romeo does terribly at that to but he is, technically, “in it”.  Our top two are Mike and Lindsay, who are always one or two pieces apart from each other.  Fortunately for our entertainment, Mike wins, thus making things more exciting post-challenge, and proving that, on occasion, the physical part of a challenge ending in a puzzle CAN make a difference.  

Mike also gets to take someone to a pasta a cake reward.  He unsurprisingly chooses Jonathan, which given how close the two are, I can’t blame him for.  Best to keep your ally close and strong at this point, so that they don’t turn on you at Final Four Firemaking.  No, Mike’s dumb move is an entirely DIFFERENT one!  See, Jonathan realizes that he’s the logical target for Lindsay to pitch, and so, with Mike now immune, asks Mike for the idol, which Mike agrees to do.  Now, don’t misunderstand.  If Mike is to use his immunity on someone else, Jonathan is the PERFECT person to do so.  Someone loyal to him, so keeps him safe down the road, and cuts out from under Jonathan the narrative that he got there on his own.  No, the flaw in this is that YOU ALREADY PROMISSED LINDSAY AND MARYANNE YOUR IDOL!  If you weren’t keeping count, that’s now everyone EXCEPT Romeo he’s made that promise to.  Odds are, at least one of them will be on the jury, and VERY pissed at you as a result.  

Lindsay recognizes that she’s likely doomed, but gives it her level best, guilt-tripping Mike about his promise from earlier.  Mike seems genuinely hurt by it, but waffles on actually giving it to her.  A worthy effort by Lindsay, though she laid it on a little thick.  On the whole, honestly, I don’t buy it.  If Bob didn’t give up immunity to Kenny on “Survivor Gabon”, then Mike, someone strategically leagues ahead of Bob, is not going to give up his idol here, immunity or no.  

Far better for misdirection is Maryanne, who is a much better actor than Lindsay, and has more pull with Mike, more subtly guilt-tripping him into playing his idol for her.  This, then, would free up her idol to be played on Lindsay.  This scenario seems more plausible, but I still don’t buy it, especially when Maryanne considers whether or not she should save Lindsay.  It’s basically the same debate I laid out a few paragraphs ago, so I won’t re-tread it here, but it’s a reasonable debate.  Still, not buying that anyone but Lindsay is going overall.  This is a more plausible move for Mike, but overall he’s usually made the best move for his game (moral pontificating aside), and right now, his best move is to make Jonathan immune.  

Sadly, all the misdirection goes out the window when we get to Tribal Council.  Lindsay is going, and even she seems to know it, seeming kind of downtrodden throughout the proceedings.  When Romeo dubs Tribal Council “The Fire”, and talking about someone who has fought hard every single time, yeah, we know she’s going.  I’m mixed on the outcome, to be honest.  I think she played the most consistently good game of all those left, and on that level I’m sorry she didn’t get the chance to prove it in front of the jury.  That said, if Lindsay WAS our winner, I’d be a bit upset about her edit, since we saw little of her compared to everyone else left.  Not invisible by any means, but on the heals of Erika’s win on “Survivor 41”, having two under-edited female winners in a row would be a big problem.  

Now the one with the biggest problem is Maryanne.  She’s set herself up well to win in pretty much any final three combination, but now it’s a matter of getting there.  She’d better hope that Mike or Jonathan are feeling particularly strategically poor today…

Or our final immunity challenge could be “Simmotion”, the challenge with no clearly defined skill set where pretty much anyone can win, that works too.  Look, I have no problem with “Simmotion” as a challenge in and of itself.  Wide open in terms of winner possibilities, and decently fun to watch.  But it doesn’t have the grandeur, the FINALITY that a final immunity challenge should bring, in my opinion.  Much as I complain about endurance challenges due to how ubiquitous they’ve become post-merge, this is the one place that should ALWAYS be a straight endurance challenge.  Give me “Hand on a Hard Idol” any day.  This, for me, falls into the same category as the “Build a House of Cards” challenge.  Fine enough as a challenge, but should not be the last one of the season.  

For all my complaints, this one actually has a few good moments.  Probst takes the time to let everyone left talk about what this challenge means to them, as well as to make it this far in the game.  Everyone gives good answers, and tugs at the old heartstrings.  Second, and this may be a cruel bit of schadenfreude, but I love Mike going out when there was only one ball.  Pretty sure that’s a “Survivor First” and surprised Probst didn’t take the time to call it out as such.  Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, Romeo wins!  Told you this challenge had no obvious skill set.  Still, good for him, and a very solid performance.  Also means we get an epic “shocked” face from Hai.  Guess Maryanne doesn’t have to worry about being sent to fire.  

Or perhaps she does!  Mike talks with Romeo first, and does not try to fight that he’s being sent to fire.  Instead, he pitches that Maryanne is the biggest jury threat, and so should send her to fire making, rather than giving Jonathan one last victory.  A decent pitch overall, and Maryanne does practice her fire making skills.  We the audience, of course, know that Romeo is a dead man walking, and is pretty much just a kingmaker in this scenario.  He’s a less crazy Noura from “Island of the Idols”.  That said, even from Romeo’s perspective, I would still pit Jonathan against Mike.  Apart from Mike having the angle of an easier fight in the end, at least by taking Maryanne, Romeo takes away some of her power, and shows that he was not just dragged along by the bros, but had some say in their fate.  

All practice fire, and we see that Jonathan is pretty good, while Mike and Maryanne struggle.  I’m sure this is not setting up any ironic twist at all!

Tribal Council is played pretty close to the chest, yet it’s still obvious what’s going to happen.  With no outstanding moments to discuss, we cut right to Romeo announcing, smartly, that he’s taking Maryanne to the end.  This has all but guaranteed Maryanne victory, but we’ll play out the rest of the episode anyway.  Jonathan and Mike have a very close duel, with both building respectable fires.  Maybe not as close as the one last season, but still a decent watch.  Still, call me a masochist, but I prefer the ones where players epically fail.  Give me the train wreck that was the Becky/Sundra duel from “Survivor Cook Islands” any day.  

In one of those moments that will doubtless make people think “Survivor” is scripted, the underdog wins.  Mike edges out Jonathan, who gets to say farewell to “Mr. Jeff”.  As you can guess, not sorry at this outcome.  Jonathan was not the WORST of the “dude bro” archetype I’ve ever seen on the show, but it’s just not one I’m fond of, and his words at the split Tribal Council this season just really soured me on him as a winner.  It’s ok that he came, but I’m glad he didn’t win.  Also, had he made Final Tribal and lost, we would have had an even less-justified “Xander Situation” from last season on our hands, and I just couldn’t take that right now.  

Also, fun fact, this marks the first time each starting tribe has been represented in a “Final Three” (with three starting tribes), since “Survivor Worlds Apart”. Not unique, but fun to see nonetheless.

We get our usual “Here’s why each finalist can win” narrative over our breakfast, but in a different and clever way.  We here a BIT from the finalists themselves, but in a clever move, particularly given the lack of “Ponderosa” videos this season, we hear the jurors themselves talk about each finalist, both their strengths and what we need to see.  It’s a fascinating insight into the jury, and I would welcome more dives like this in future seasons.  Even if some of the justifications are a bit weak.  Both Mike and Maryanne get a “here’s what we want to see from them” bit (owning up to playing duplicitously while pretending to be honorable and owning/fighting for their game, respectively), but Romeo gets a somewhat lackluster “He’s not completely out of it.” justification from a couple of people.  Don’t get me wrong, they do their best, but clearly the jury doesn’t have a lot to work with here.  

Also, not buying the “Anyone can win” montage at the end.  Yes, I know pretty much all the jury says they were open-minded at the reunion show, and this jury may have had more wiggle room than some other seasons, but no jury is THAT open minded.  I don’t buy at least half these people not having their votes locked in.  

For all that Romeo is drawing dead at this point, I will credit him, he does a pretty good job at Final Tribal Council.  He owns the moves he did make, talks about his growth, owns up to his mistakes but talks about how they relate to his game journey.  He even gets in a bit of pandering to Hai, reminding him of their in-game bond.  Really, the only misstep I can think of for Romeo is that when he gets called “Paranoid” by Tori he stumbles over his explanation of why he wasn’t, and even that’s a minor thing.  He did his level best, but his fate was already sealed at this point.  

Contrast with Mike.  You remember how the jury wanted him to own up to betraying people despite talking about wanting to play with “honor”?  Yeah, that wasn’t put in there for no reason.  Mike all but directly gets asked about that several times, with the jury making it abundantly clear they want him to own his betrayals.  Despite this, Mike does not take the hint multiple times, and insists the only time he broke his word was with Rocksroy.  You hear that, Mike?  That’s the sound of your million, fluttering out the window.  

Maryanne, while not overall the most performance-heavy Final Tribal, does her job well.  She fields her questions in an articulate manner, gives the jury what they want to hear.  It’s not going to rock the history books, but it does what it needs to.  She even points out that her moves gave her more options to be taken to the end rather than make fire (with Mike using his idol for her at final five, and all left wanting to take her to the end at four), thereby destroying my theory regarding why she would want Lindsay around. The stand out moment, that clinches her win, is of course her reveal of the merge idol she found, the “One secret that was kept all season”.  The jury clearly eats it up, and if you doubted Maryanne’s winner potential, doubt no more.  

Yes, we have two female Canadian winners of color in a row!  Huzzah!  Happy for them, but feeling uneasy about Canadians in particular being targeted in future seasons.  Still, good for Maryanne.  Very happy to see her win, and definitely a fun character to have as a winner.

Our reunion show is, as per the norm, nothing to write home about.  I’m still mixed on whether I prefer the old format or this new one.  I do enjoy the intimacy of the new format, and the lack of audience gimmicks/old players being called back for an interview.  That said, the lack of pre-jury, while understandable given the winner reveal, bothers me, and I do think it’s good to give people a chance to reflect on their games before interviewing them about said games.  This particular reunion did few favors in terms of turning me on to the new format.  Probst seemed to be schilling for the new twists half the time, which I suppose is his job, but still, not what I come to the reunion for.  There were a few funny highlights, though.  Rocksroy owning that he was clueless about the idol activation phrases.  Mike being delivered multiple pizzas in a row.  Probst actually talking back to Jonathan when he tries to give Omar a suggestion when asked to name an animal Mike is like.  All comedy gold.  

Before we wrap up my overall thoughts on the season, it’s time for the traditional look back at my pre-season cast assessment, and see how badly I failed in my predictions.  

Jonathan-His personality I had pretty much pegged (no surprise there, he’s not exactly subtle about it), but he did last longer than I would have thought.  

Marya-Slightly overestimated her time in the game, but overall pretty much right.  

Romeo-Wrong.  For all my snark, particularly this episode, he played a pretty good game, and made it deservedly deep as a result.  

Tori-Wrong.  Lasted longer than I thought, and less irritating on the show than I would have thought.  Still don’t care for her in real life, though.  

Jackson-Wrong, though in fairness, I had no way to predict he’d hide medical information from production.  

Chanelle-Her time was slightly shorter than I thought, but out in the merge area and not that memorable.  Overall, I’d say I was right with her.  

Omar-Slight overestimation, since I said he’d be out at five or four, but within the margin of error, so I think I can give myself the win on this one.  

Swati-I was right in regards to about how much time she would have in the game, but I gave her too much credit on game-savviness.  

Hai-Pretty much right, though the guy was more ruthless than I gave him credit for, and thus his reason for leaving was different.  

Lindsay-Wrong.  More game-savvy, and longer-lasting than I anticipated, and I am here for it!

Mike-Wrong.  He’s not setting the world on fire with his gameplay, but there’s more of it there than I gave him credit for, and he lasted much longer than I thought he would as a result.  

Lydia-Pretty much right.  Her humor shows more in her twitter than on the show, though.  

Rocksroy-Wrong.  Sometimes being hard to find just means you’re anti-social.  Not good in a winner pick.  

Jenny Kim-Mixed on this one.  She went out pretty much exactly where I thought she would, and she DID have shades of the bossiness I thought would do her in.  But she hid them well, and would have done much better if not for fluke twists.  Kind of right, kind of wrong, in pretty much all ways.  

Daniel-Wrong.  Worse player than I thought, and out earlier as a result.  

Zach-Wrong.  Much less smart than I though, and consequently out much earlier.  

Drea-Pretty much right, though again, I think I underestimated her smarts.  

Maryanne-TWO FOR TWO ON THE WINNER PICKS IN THE NEW ERA, BABY!  LET’S GO!

In case I haven’t already made it clear, I LOVE this season to death.  This is, unquestionably for me, a top-tier season, the first to get that honor since “Survivor David vs Goliath”, and probably the one I’ve been most excited to put there since “Survivor Cambodia” (I have a lot of respect for “David vs Goliath” as a season, but between enjoying “Ghost Island” more than most and thinking the theming is incredibly dumb, I’m not as jazzed about it as most are.  I acknowledge it’s overall technical perfection as a season, but it just does not have the “umph” to bring it to true love that I have for seasons above it).  Really, the cast is what make this work.  We really connect with this cast, who are by and large fun characters and decent strategists.  Yes, we may not have gotten truly innovative gameplay this season, but not every season needs that.  Standard gameplay, done well, can serve as well, and we get that in spades this season.  Every week told a fun, coherent story with characters we loved to watch, and really, what more could you ask for from a season?  

That said, this season is not without a couple of flaws.  The positives outweigh them, but they are there.  Predominantly, like “Survivor 41”, this season just had too many twists, too much stuff to keep track of.  Being a carbon copy of the format between seasons was KIND OF a cool experiment, but it meant the worst excesses of the previous season were not corrected.  Secondarily, and admittedly very nit-picky, I would say the tail end of the season (last 2-3 episodes) did not have good misdirection.  You could pretty much tell the order of the last few boots at the start of their episodes.  Granted, the show made up for this by giving us great “downfall” narratives each time, but as someone who goes out of his way to praise the misdirection, it is, technically, a flaw.  

While not affecting my ranking in and of itself, I also want to note that “Survivor 41” was kind of hard-done-by, in comparison to this season.  Most of the positives for this season could be said of “Survivor 41”, and that season definitely had more innovations in strategy than this season.  The problem is that, with “Survivor 41” having to introduce SO MANY new twists and advantages that time needed to be spend explaining them, it took away from time that could be spend bonding with the cast.  As such, while I think both are great, I connect more with this current cast, just because half of each episode didn’t need to be eaten up with rules explanations.  That said, that’s purely a factor of order.  Flip them around, with “Survivor 42” introducing all the new stuff first somehow, and I probably have the exact opposite feelings about these seasons.  Again, not a factor in my ranking overall, but wanted to acknowledge that “Survivor 41” got a raw deal due to factors outside its control.  

We did get a short preview for “Survivor 43”… Despite the fact that it’s still filming.  Eh, whatever.  It was so devoid of overall content that I can’t comment too much on it, but I do have a couple of random thoughts.  The cast seems decent.  I already like the attitude of the tattooed woman in blue.  The buffs are nice and colorful.  And the logo is an excellent design, save for the stupid giant number at the top.  I guess I have to accept that it’s going to be a “thing” moving forward, but I still think it looks dumb.  Make it smaller, and either integrate it better into the logo, or put it BENEATH the name where it belongs!

Anyway, I am tired, but don’t think this is the last of the blogs for now!  There will be a brief hiatus, but we will return to our off-season content.  Still deciding what I feel like working on, but at the very least, look out for the return of “‘Survivor’ What-Ifs?”

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Finale: In a Mirror, Darkly

Longtime readers of mine will know that one of my favorite things to do with a finale blog is to point out how the finale weirdly parallels the season as a whole. It’s frankly strange how often this one (admittedly extra-long) episode is a microcosm for the season as a whole. This season, however, I can’t do that. Indeed, with rare exception, this episode has exactly the opposite of the strengths and weaknesses of the season as a whole.

Case in point, despite not emphasizing the season-naming twist too much, we start off with Rob and Sandra looking into the sun, discussing their history with the game. Not that this scene isn’t nice, but again, this is the finale of a journey we’ve spent 13 episodes (14 if you count double-length episodes as two episodes, which I don’t) on, getting to know the NEW people along the way. This finale should be all about them. Putting the emphasis on Rob and Sandra is, in my book, a poor move.

I shouldn’t give the show too much hate for this, though, since this is about the most we’ll see of the pair this entire time. What I WILL complain about is the lack of a recap. True, that’s been the case pretty much the entire season, and while I think it was a step in the wrong direction particularly in some episodes, I’ve been overall fine with it. The finale is the exception to this. Even in this day and age, the finale is usually the most-watched episode of any season. In addition to the loyal fans who follow the season religiously, you also get in some casuals who get curious about how this thing will end. I’m all for putting the fans first (especially since they’re what’s allowed the show to go on so long), but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cater to casual viewers at all.

In any case, the Lumuwaku tribe gets a note for everyone to pack their things and get on a boat. Have the producers thrown up their hands after Dan’s behavior, and just decided to scrap the whole thing? No, of course not! Everyone just goes to Island of the Idols where they’ll live in Rob’s super-shelter for the remainder of the game. Goodie. Because why emphasize the society that our new players have built, when you could emphasize the society Rob and Sandra have built? We also find out here that the whole “Lying about Island of the Idols” thing was dropped at some point as Tommy, the only player left who hadn’t been, expressed no surprise at what he saw. He did insist on the first hug, which was fair. Our players get new “special edition” buffs for the occasion, which appear to be black, because why have different and interesting tribe colors when all merge buffs could just be black? Rob and Sandra have some nice words of parting, and mercifully leave so that the focus can be on what we’ve all been watching this season for…

IDOL HUNTING! What, you thought this game was about the players? No, you fool, it’s all about idols and advantages! After Noura has a fun scene where she gushes about how nice the shelter is, Tommy points out that this is all too easy, and there must be some twist to this new camp. He correctly zeroes in on the new buffs they were given, and sure enough notes that one of the idols on the logo has been replaced with a machete. It’s subtle, but it’s there, so Tommy goes around examining the machetes. He eventually finds one embedded in a random coconut, which has been painted red on the inside. The only problem with this is that Tommy is colorblind, and has trouble telling what “red” is, thus not doing much to limit his search. What he does to combat this problem I’m sure a lot of people give him flak for, but honestly, I can understand Tommy’s logic here. Needing help, he goes to Dean, who’s really the only logical choice. Tommy’s made it clear that despite alliances with Janet and Lauren, he really doesn’t want to go to the end with them, so they’re out. Noura? Do you really think Noura would be a good idol-hunting partner? No, Dean is more reliable, and has helped out Tommy in the past, making him the best option for Tommy at this point.

Unfortunately, Dean has other ideas. He wants the idol for himself, and so makes no pretense about looking. Tommy notices, and so doggedly keeps searching on his own. Eventually he finds the correct clue: A red board along a path. Color-blindness be damned. Tommy peels it up to reveal, not an idol, but another clue. In this case, a letter “H” carved into some bamboo. Still befuddled, Tommy calls in Dean for help, and while Dean still doesn’t look like he’s helping, he actually is looking, just for himself. While Tommy is looking for a path intersection or a set of sticks laid out the same way, Dean thinks it looks like the rope swing that was set up, and so goes for a swing. He oddly does not look under the swing, which was the first place I’d look if I suspected the swing was hiding something, but Dean turns out to be right in this case. He notices a similar “H” carved into one of the shelter supports, and after waiting for everyone to be off somewhere else, pulls out an idol, and a nice note from Rob and Sandra. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, as a Tommy supporter, I’m sad that he didn’t get the advantage. However, one of the things I love about Tommy is that he’s done so well without the need for an idol or advantage. It’s a nice thumbing of the nose at a season that so seems to emphasize idols and advantages, and also speaks well to Tommy’s skill in the game. In that sense, I’m glad that his record of good gameplay wouldn’t be sullied with such a crutch. Dean, for his part, is happy at his find, but a little too optimistic about how much power this gives him. He notes his legacy advantage (fake), his idol nullifier (won in a lame coin flip), and his hidden immunity idol (actually an accomplishment). Of these, one just makes him look bad, and two need to be played correctly to be of use. Dean thinks this makes him a major threat in the game, and I’m not saying he’s completely out of the running, but the dude overemphasizes how important these things are. I think it’s his talk throughout the episode of how “historic” this is, and how a real fan of the show appreciates what Dean’s doing that gets to me. It’s ok to like these things, but for me, they’re not what the show is or should be about, and I don’t like that Dean is perpetrating the stereotype that they’re all this show focusses on these days.

Our immunity challenge for the day is another obstacle course, though with a lot of emphasis on ladders this time. Tribe members use sticks to get down rope ladder rungs to build, well, a ladder, and then have to maneuver a bag of balls up another ladder by moving its rungs. This all ends in a table maze, which is probably the weakest element of the challenge, but it’s otherwise ok. Obstacle courses are just so commonplace at this point in the game that they just all blend together anyway. Dean ends up winning, but since he wasn’t really a target at this point, it doesn’t really matter. Dean also gets to take someone to steak dinner, and so takes Noura. Not sure what it is about Noura this episode, but she REALLY leans into the whole “dating” thing, comparing Dean to a sleazy ex-boyfriend while also admiring him in confessionals. The pair make a pat agreement to take each other to the end that neither of them really believes, so the scene is more comedy than anything. Never change, Noura.

Dean does, however, plan to use his idol nullifier tonight, since Janet needs to play her idol that night anyway, and Dean and Tommy both want her gone. Surprisingly, Janet is on board with this plan. Not so much the “idol nullifier” part, but she is suggesting the votes be piled on her so she can idol out Lauren. Not a bad plan, but definitely risky, as we see in a minute. Of course, we need misdirection, and so Dean talks about potentially wanting Lauren out instead, since she’s a bigger social threat. Tommy, however, emphasizes the threat that Janet poses as well, particularly as she’s good at fire-making, as we saw at the beginning of the season. Weirdly, they’re both right. Dean is right when he says that Lauren is more of a social threat than anyone left, and Tommy is right when he says that Janet will beat anyone in fire making. Hence, why Janet needs to go. I’m normally all for voting out the biggest threat, but due to fire making, this is the last time you can realistically get Janet out, whereas Lauren can go pretty much at any time.

The show does its level best to convince us that there’s a chance that Dean will let Lauren be voted out, but I’m personally not buying it. The misdirection this season has been pretty good overall, but after 13 episodes, we’ve learned its tricks. We know that even if it looks like people are going to make the dumb decision, they continue to do the smart thing. Hence, Janet will go home via idol nullifier, exactly as everyone predicted. After a pretty tame Tribal Council (though mercifully without the commentary of Rob and Sandra), we get just that. Even if predictable, though, we do get the impact of the idol nullifier being played. Sure, we know it’s coming, but the impact on the players, Janet in particular, still makes for an effective moment. Janet goes home and I, like the rest of the fanbase, am heartbroken. Janet was a decent player in the game, but more than that, and excellent human being. Even if she was the smart choice to vote out at this juncture, she was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak season, and a different character type that we usually see make it this late in the show. I look forward to her return, and think her interview at commercial was completely justified. Glad to hear she’s inspiring others.

That said, we the audience are not the only ones to react to that idol nullifier. The jury is quite vocal about it as well, with Missy in particular giving a good “shocked” expression at the whole thing. Here’s where my heart starts to sink, as it looks like Dean may have a point. True, he’s been playing well for the last couple of episodes, and that’s not nothing, but is a lackluster first 3/4ths of a game no longer relevant? Is a flashy end really all that’s needed at this point? Are idols and advantages really the things we want in our winner exclusively? It’s a depressing thought, if true.

On our next day, Tommy continues his social game, by spinning complete BS to Noura. He has correctly realized that, while fire-making can be a way to win jury points, it’s also a huge risk. Tommy, being risk-averse, has made sure no one has ever seen him make fire, and so sells Noura on the idea that he’s never made fire before, and isn’t good at it, the idea being that this way Noura won’t want to put him in in the hopes of beating someone else. Noura admits that he’s playing her, but also says she likes the attention. I’ll also give Tommy credit not only for hiding his skills, but also for having the smarts to do his schmoozing BEFORE the challenge, thus making the lie less transparent. It does make the winner of our challenge more transparent, though. Since both Tommy and Dean have made deals to the end with Noura, Noura is going to win the challenge, a fact emphasized when we see that it’s a repeat of the challenge from “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”, where tribe members balance blocks that spell a phrase (in this case, “Island of the Idols”) on a wobbly pole. Not the worst challenge, but it doesn’t have the epic feel a final challenge should. It also favors women, who tend to have better balance, and so Noura ends up the winner. Good for her, but a predictable outcome nonetheless.

Much as Noura can be fun, here she’s a bit much for everyone. It’s an accepted phenomenon that when you win immunity, you’re a bit happier than the rest of your tribe. In this case, however, the rest of the tribe REALLY wants to know what Noura’s planning, since it kind of affects them. Instead, Noura cheerfully says she’s going for a swim and suggests they share a pineapple afterward. They do not take this well, especially since when Noura DOES come and tell them her plan, she does it in her roundabout way that makes her a fun character, but hard to live with. She eventually informs Lauren that she’ll be going to fire-making due to being a threat, which Lauren does not take well, mostly because Noura still insists on describing her as her “number one”, which she objectively is not at this point. Lauren keeps asking who she’ll go against, while Noura keeps insisting on explaining her logic. She eventually reveals that, wanting Lauren beaten, she’s sending Dean to fire, evidently having bought Tommy’s lie about being bad at fire. Naturally, Tommy and Dean are both happy about this. Lauren goes off to cry for a minute, though she quickly sets to making fire. She and Dean both have some trouble, though Tommy offers both advice, so that whoever loses will still be happy he helped. How he’s never called on this, I can’t say. About the only disadvantage is that Noura comes over to try and make peace with Lauren, but as it’s Noura, she doesn’t do a very good job of it. She keeps insisting on that “number one” thing, which really pisses Lauren off. Noura also doesn’t take the hint that Lauren wants to be left alone right now. I know this show thrives on conflict, but this really just felt uncomfortable. Too personal and too pointless at this juncture to be worth showing. As to whether this was a good idea for Noura, I personally would have kept Dean around for the end, and let Tommy and Lauren go to fire. You can’t trust anything anyone says, especially relating to fire-making, and if your problem with Dean is that he’s rallying at the end, putting him in a position to win fire-making only helps that. Take that away, and you undercut his argument, and let the two big social threats duke it out.

Contrary to how Noura is, Tribal Council is short and sweet. Since Noura already knows who she’s taking, we guarantee that Tommy is safe, and Lauren and Dean go to fire-making. It’s a decently close match between them, but Dean’s extra practice and not being annoyed by Noura pays off, as he wins, thus making his case better for the end. As one might expect, I am sorry to see Lauren go home. Her game was underemphasized, especially early on, but the woman had a lot of good plays, and can be proud of herself. She played well, and it would have been interesting to see how she would have done against the jury. She definitely deserves the Probst interview she got after her exit. I also look forward to her inevitable return.

After ending the fire making challenge, Dean, in an attempt to look better, points out that he’d only made fire that day. Not bad, but he says too much. He goes on to say “Tommy played you.” This makes him look weak socially compared to Tommy. As Jack puts it: “Tommy played YOU”. Fun fact: This is the first time all season that the number of men left is greater than the number of women. No small feat.

Since we’re now at Day 39, this of course means that we get everyone’s arguments for why they should win, before we head off to Tribal Council. Surprisingly, everyone’s got at least a decent argument. Tommy of course has his social game, and Dean has his “fourth-quarter rally” as he calls it. But Noura even brings up a good point: she could easily have been the first one out, yet rallied to become a major player in the game. True, Noura’s personality and long-windedness tend to counteract any chance she has with the jury, but on its own, the argument’s not half-bad.

Not content to just let things sit, Tommy and Noura discuss their opening statements. Tommy suggests that they need to go after Dean, emphasizing how he was pulled along as a goat the entire way, and never in power. He suggests Noura talk about this in her opening statement. Translation: “Noura, make my biggest target look like an ass for me so he’s easier to beat, while keeping my hands clean of any mudslinging.” Noura seems drawn in by it, even if she realizes what Tommy’s doing, and I’m happy because it reminds me of Chris Daugherty (“Survivor Vanuatu”) convincing Twila to not hold back in their Final Tribal Council. It’s actually a brilliant move that I can’t wait to see play out.

What’s that? We’re not getting opening statements this time. Yay. Guess that made that completely pointless.

Say what you will about this season, but if nothing else, the jury has managed to do something not seen since the switch to the new Final Tribal Council Format: BE INTERESTING! Seriously, apart from Wardog’s “The theme is not on trial here; you are.” comment on “Survivor Edge of Extinction” there hasn’t been one standout moment since we moved away from questions. This jury, however, delivers. Oh, it’s not always coherent what they deliver. Indeed, a lot of their debates over social game versus idol game become a jumbled mess, but at least there’s actual DEBATE and EMOTION going into it. Things never go out of control, thanks in large part to moderator Jamal, but they do get fun. Elaine calling out Noura for giving non-answers. Aaron calling out Tommy for dismissing the idol hunting part of the game. Karishma calling out Dean for not forming the needed relationships. And of course, Kellee calling out everybody. The lack of question-and-answer makes a blow by blow impracticable, but Noura gets dismissed early on due to using yet another “dating” metaphor. Thus, it comes down to Tommy, the social player, versus Dean, the advantage player. For once, there’s no obvious winner based on arguments. Tommy wins in the early portion, since it’s most about social game, and Dean admits that he didn’t make those bonds. Dean tries to spin it as a positive, saying that he didn’t break any bonds as a result, but with how many admit that Tommy was up in their alliance, coupled with Tommy doing a good job articulating his strategy, and owning up to his playing of Noura to guarantee himself safety. The second portion focusses on idols, advantages, and immunity wins, an area where Tommy is pretty much completely lacking. Tommy takes the appropriate tactic of downplaying the importance of these things, though this does incite debate amongst the jury whether that’s true (Aaron and Missy seem to feel it is, others not so much). None of this is helped by Dean’s revelation that he found the idol under Tommy’s proverbial nose. Even the revelation of the fake legacy advantage doesn’t hurt, as Jamal points out he was able to use it as a threat in spite of being a fake. Tommy doesn’t come out looking too good, but Dean also shoots himself in the foot. Having initially said he made no deals he couldn’t keep, he mentions having made final two deals with people sitting on the jury, and is rightly called out for it. There’s closing statements, but that’s basically the note we go out on.

So, it’s social game versus flashy game. As always, and as it should, social game wins out. Tommy wins, the first person to do so without an idol or advantage since Denise Stapely on “Survivor Philippines” (if you count winning immunity as well, the last person to match Tommy was Natalie White on “Survivor Samoa”). That is a good note for the season. One thing this episode did that the season as a whole avoided was to REALLY emphasize the importance of idols and advantages in the game. They were talked about, sure, but never really seen as a “necessity” before that episode. Unlike the rest of the season, the twist of the season overall was emphasized as the main focus of the season in this episode. That’s why someone like Dean, who only really started doing anything worthy of a vote last episode, is still talked about as a contender. So, for all that emphasis, it is satisfying to see the one guy who had NONE of that, and just played his social game, give a figurative thumbed nose to production. Tommy may not be the most interesting winner, but he did play an excellent game worthy of his victory. And I’m not just saying that because he was my personal favorite.

And so we come to our “live” reunion show. As has been highly publicized by now, it was pre-recorded, and we the viewers got an edited version. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, unlike an edited tv show, a truly live reunion can’t be edited super fast, and there are kids who watch “Survivor”. Wouldn’t want them picking up anything negative like that. Plus, with lawsuits doubtless pending, you want to make sure you don’t say anything that can be used against you. And, above all, this can hopefully avoid a “Jerri Manthey” incident like we had on “Survivor All-Stars”. That said, it’s not down to the show to police what they show, but down to families, and editing the reunion also gives the show control of the narrative, which they could do who knows what with. All that is suspicious, and on the whole, I think they should have kept it live, though I can understand why they did it the way they did, and won’t vilify them for it.

As to the show itself, it’s ok. Not great. We hear at least a bit from most people on the jury and up, but almost nothing from the pre-mergers, including our first Canadian! Also, why wasn’t Jack able to come? Dan I get, but why not Jack? Still, the big story is the Probst/Kellee conversation, and in one final twist on how the show has been, they handle it WAY better than they have so far. They admit fault. They explain that they’re going to do better. But most important, they give Kellee a platform to speak on her experience, and largely let her do it. Probst interrupts a little bit at one point, but for the most part, they handle things well here. It gives me hope for the future, and Kellee says she hopes that the incident won’t color the overall perception of the season.

I feel for Kellee, but unfortunately I think the damage was done. Even this overall lackluster, predictable finale, despite a nice outcome, doesn’t change anything. For good or for ill, despite everything good about this season, including a great and overall likable cast (again, Dan notwithstanding) with a good reaffirmation of the importance of the social game, when we look back on the season, what we’ll think of is the controversy, and it just drags the season down too much. I hope most of the cast gets a second chance, because they deserve a season unmarred by this controversy.

But that’s not what you want to hear about. You want me to talk about the reveal for next season. And I’m sorry, but I have to complain. Don’t get me wrong, I WANT to like this season. I WANT to be excited about this season. I mean, all-winners is an idea that ANY true fan has at least thought about. Come on, look at some of the people we’re finally getting to see again. “Survivor Guatemala” finally gets the representation it so richly deserves with the return of Danni. Yul comes back to finally prove he can play well without an original-rules idol. ETHAN FREAKING ZOHN will grace our tv screens again after 16 years of absence! So yeah, I want to be excited, but I can’t. That’s because, in that preview, they also mentioned something awful. Something dreadful. Something so horrendous, it may ruin the season before it even starts…

“Winners at War”? Really? THAT’S the best title you could come up with? Look, I know “Survivor Legends” is a bit generic, but it at least has more gravitas than this. And if you did need the alliteration, you could have kept it! Drop the “At”, call it “Winners War”. That sounds cool. “Winners at War” sounds like the news tagline for a minor feud between a couple that won the lottery. Everything about this season should be big and epic. That name is not.

Oh, and I suppose they also mentioned that “Edge of Extinction” is coming back. That’s also a big mark against the season, though my hope is that, like Redemption Island being on “Survivor Blood vs. Water” it’ll be merely pointless rather than actively awful.

Well, that was a lot. Only thing left to do is go through the cast, and note how wrong I was during my cast assessment.

KELLEE-The “Wentworth Loophole” continues. Kellee was certainly memorable. Didn’t make it quite as far as I’d thought, but she still did well.

RONNIE-Again, I wasn’t super far off, but I underestimated how annoying he would be, and as a consequence overestimated his time in the game.

CHELSEA-Wrong. Much more interesting, but much shorter-lived than I predicted.

DEAN-Dean is a weird one. I’d definitely say I was right in that he never really connected with the other members of the cast, but not quite for the reasons I thought. It also never really mattered to his time in the game. On the whole, wrong.

NOURA-She was definitely as out there as I thought, and I was initially right that she would rub people the wrong way. Yet, she lasted longer than I thought. Good for her.

VINCE-Had he actually kept his head down, he might have exactly matched my predictions. As it stands, I was wrong. He was much shorter-lived than I thought.

LAUREN-Wrong, flat out. Maybe her charm just didn’t come across to me, maybe she’s just not my cup of tea, but she was WAY better than I thought at the game.

TOMMY-CALLED IT! CALLED IT! NEENER, NEENER, NEENER!

KARISHMA-Kind of right, kind of wrong. She definitely struggled out there, but then the women’s alliance kept her alive. Ended up being wrong as a result.

AARON-For once this blog, pretty much straight-up right. Muscle kept around until the merge, but not much past that.

MOLLY-Right on time in the game, wrong on personality. She was not as big a character as I thought. Probably the forgotten member of the season, if I’m being honest.

TOM-Not as big a liability as I predicted, but still wrong overall. He lasted about as long as I predicted, though.

MISSY-I may have undersold her game skills a bit, but she lasted about as long as I thought, and left for being a threat, so I was pretty much right.

JACK-He had a bit more game than I gave him credit for, but I was otherwise right. Out after the swap.

ELAINE-For once, one of the biggest characters I predicted pulled through! Elaine did end up a better Lauren Rimmer (“Survivor Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers”), and I am thrilled to be right about her!

JASON-Wrong. Overestimated his smarts and his time in the game.

ELIZABETH-Wrong. I overestimated her game savvy, and as a result, she didn’t match my expectations. She came decently close, though.

JAMAL-Pretty charming, and out at the early merge. Another “win” for me.

JANET-Wrong, and happy to be so. She was much better at the game than I gave her credit for, and I’m happy she made it deep.

DAN-Wrong, though who could have predicted that whole debacle.

Well, that about wraps up this season. Thanks for being patient for this to come out. Now, you’d expect to see my cast assessment for “Survivor Winners at War” up soon, since the cast is revealed, but I’m waiting for confirmation that name color is indicative of tribe, due to so many previous relationships staying together. With 2/5 of the “Villains” tribe on this season, some overlap was inevitable, but some of this just seems nuts. Really? You put Jeremy and Natalie on the same tribe? What on earth made you think that was a good idea? But there’s another reason for the delay. Lame name aside, this is the 20th anniversary of “Survivor”, and that deserves celebration. I think it’s time we go back and look at those season rankings…

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 12: Mirror Universe

With the nation of Fiji subsidizing half the show, and it being relatively easy to film there, it has seemed like “Survivor” would never leave again. Yet, this episode provides us with an alternative, one that keeps the ease that the show currently has in filming, and have no extra cost. Ladies and Gentlemen, I propose to you Season 41: “Survivor Mirror Universe”.

What’s that? Getting to a metaphysical concept where alignments are switched is beyond the realm of mortal ken? Nonsense! The show’s clearly been there already! They brought back the version of Tommy that actually gets pissed at stuff, so they obviously are able to get there! Now all we need to do if film a season there, and we’re good to go. Before we can talk about my fee for this new idea, however, we have to talk about…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Yep, can’t help but have a stumble in the antepenultimate blog, even if it is a small one. In all the excitement of the last 10 minutes of the previous episode, I forgot to mention that Elaine played her idol. Unnecessary in her case, since she wasn’t a target, but she had no way to guarantee that, and I can’t really fault her for being cautious. Now, on to the episode proper.

You would think, given that pretty much everyone was done with Karishma, that things would be fairly chill following the past Tribal Council. You forget, however, that Tommy has been replaced with an evil doppelgänger, who is none too pleased with only finding out about the votes coming his way at Tribal Council itself. Naturally, his anger is directed at Noura, since she seemed to be in on the plan. Even Tommy’s natural diplomacy can’t hide the rage in his voice. This, naturally, increases Noura’s rage, and she goes to take her revenge on Dean. She pulls from the Holly Hoffman (“Survivor Nicaragua”) school and goes for his shoes. She says she’s going to put them on the tribe sign, which I initially think is just a height thing, but then she mentions that this is where they always put an article of clothing from the people who’ve been voted out. I’d like to talk about the ominous yet subtle threat this poses to Dean, or Noura’s great “Soul/Sole” pun, but I can’t because I’m too busy being pissed that THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE’RE HEARING ABOUT THIS TRADITION! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS SHOW? Seriously, this is a great little slice of life that both humanizes and connects us with the cast, and is a unique feature we would get only on this season, yet we’re only just now hearing about it! Man, this show really has its priorities screwed up this season. And believe it or not, this is not the last time I’m going to say that about this episode.

Even if I had avoided the “Matt’s Mess-Up” section, Elaine would have made sure it was mentioned anyway, as she and Dean get up to go idol hunting. I’m all ready to blast this cast for sleeping in when there’s idols in them thar hills, but fortunately Janet is here to prove me wrong. She shakes Tommy awake, and the two pairs go idol hunting. Since Tommy or Janet finding the idol would be the outcome that removes the most tension from the moment, naturally Janet finds the idol and shows it to Tommy. Not that she gets away scot-free, though. Dean and Elaine note that Janet appears to be showing Tommy something, and Tommy is looking down, leading them to correctly conclude that Janet found the idol. I’d normally complain about Tommy and Janet not doing a 360 to check to see if they’re being watched, yet we’re clearly shown that Tommy did. Chalk one up to Dean and Elaine’s spying skills, I guess.

Coming back from commercial, we see that Elaine has now developed plan B to avoid going home, now that an idol seems out of the question. She goes back to the “women’s alliance” well by cozying up to Lauren, but surprisingly is the first person to actually try and convince Lauren to turn against Tommy. Not Missy’s plan of voting Tommy out independently, and then win Lauren’s loyalty, but to actually appeal to Lauren’s strategic nature. And Elaine actually has kind of a point, saying that nobody wants Lauren at the end, and that Dean will supplant her. It helps that Elaine doesn’t put the focus so much on getting out Tommy (a harder sell) as she does getting out Dean. Lauren discusses this with Tommy, who I have to say is kind of condescending here, comparing her to a jealous girlfriend. He can’t pretend that Dean hasn’t moved up, since he’s grateful to Dean, but spins a good lie that he’s replaced Janet, not her. Lauren seems to buy it, but we then see that this is another case of self-fulfilling prophecy. Just as talk of a women’s alliance can cause one to form where there was none before (see “Survivor Kaoh Rong”), so too can talk of a men’s alliance cause one to form. Tommy talks about how he, Dean, and Dan have a pact to the end, since Tommy can beat both of them, and how they need to get rid of Lauren. Funnily enough, while this is not the first alliance to be nothing but men, it IS the first one to be referred to as a “Men’s Alliance”.

Talking about how much Tommy likes Dean now can only lead up to something making Dean look terrible. Sure enough, a boat comes and informs the group that a random person needs to be sent to Island of the Idols. Guess who that random person is!

Fittingly for the last individual visit to Island of the Idols, Dean’s is a combination of both the humiliation type and the strategy type. We start off, fittingly for Dean, with the humiliation angle, as he talks about his “brilliant” move of playing the fake Legacy Advantage, instead of his REAL fake legacy advantage. This should be hilarious, but here’s where Rob and Sandra basically being producers hurts them. Look, Dean seems like a nice guy, but this is a dumb move on his part, and he should be HUMILIATED for it. Sandra should be talking about his “stupid ass”. Rob should be coming up with some crazy, working-class metaphor for what Dean’s trying to pull. But instead, they can’t give away that info, and just keep a straight face. Way to cut the teeth out of two of the best snarkers in the history of the game, show! Our lesson is much better, though with a caveat I’ll get to in a second. Rob and Sandra’s lesson is about jury management, something new, relevant to the game, and that Dean desperately needs. He’s been getting the goober edit for most of the season, and if that’s what we’re seeing, most likely that’s what the jury is seeing. But what they say about winning over the jury, I don’t get. They talk about the need to have victories in front of the jury, and about making a coherent narrative. A bit of an oversimplification, and leans in a bit too much into modern “Survivor” and its penchant for “BIG MOVEZ!”, but nothing too egregious. But it’s Sandra saying “The jury always wants to vote for the player who played the best.” that gets to me. Um, Sandra, more often than not it’s the jury voting for who they like the most, or at a minimum dislike the least, the leads to someone winning, game or no game. Rob I can understand having the philosophy of “the best player winning”, since that’s how he won “Survivor Redemption Island” but Sandra, BOTH OF YOUR WINS WERE DUE TO BEING AGAINST DISLIKED PLAYERS! DID YOU JUST FORGET THAT OR SOMETHING? Again, I think this is the producer hat coming on, but all this does is reaffirm that the pair are far more interesting as players than as producers.

In the vein of a move to impress the jury, Rob offers Dean the challenge of a “Coin Flip”. It’s about as much of a challenge as the “Pull rocks from a bag” family challenge on “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”. He loses, he loses his vote. He wins, he gets his choice of an extra vote, an idol nullifier, or a hidden immunity idol good for one vote, and must be played on someone else. This is a toughie. On the one hand, if people are truthful, Dean really doesn’t have much to lose, even if he can’t vote. On the other, as he saw with Kellee, there’s no guarantee of loyalty after being saved, so perhaps better not to risk it with so few numbers, on something you have no control over. Plus, I don’t buy Rob’s comment that the jury will respect Dean risking everything in his game on a coin flip. Using an advantage correctly, I could get behind. But pulling that big a risk on something you have no control over? I wouldn’t respect that, and I don’t think the jury will either. It’s a moot point though, as Dean wins. He correctly picks the idol nullifier as the most powerful of the three, and the most useful to him, given his knowledge about Janet’s idol. He lies back at camp, both about having the idol nullifier and about losing his vote. The first part I get. No need to put up the hackles of someone you might want to use it on. But why lie about losing? Granted, it makes you less of a threat, but also means people won’t want to strategize with you. Dean corrects this by informing Dan, Tommy, and Lauren about what really went down, but this seems like it would backfire to me as well. After all, now you’ve proven to your allies that you lied to them, and are now more of a threat than you were previously. Sure enough, Tommy now says that Dean is maybe not as sure a bet as he thought, and may need to be eliminated. Not sure I buy his logic 100%, but I can see where he’s coming from.

CHALLENGE TIME! And yes despite overall being a “generic obstacles with puzzle at the end” challenge, this one gets my seal of approval for two reasons: One, it features dizzy people, which is always a riot, and two, the puzzle is quite creative. It’s another word puzzle, which Eliane is mad at, but rather than individual cubes, the letters are now basically on Tetris blocks, which have to be stacked to make the phrase “This game will mess with your mind”. Creative, challenging, and even the puzzle phrase is kind of clever. Hey, the challenges have been really repetitive of late, so I’ll take what I can get.

With this sort of challenge it all comes down to the puzzle. Dean wins, though since no one else seemed to make actual words (at least ones that related to the show; Dan’s “Sith” was amusing), it’s not too surprising. Good for him, but way to cut the tension, show! Since Lauren’s been presented as the only viable target, she’s obviously going to be the next to go. Sure, Tommy brings up Elaine to the group as a whole, which makes sense. Elaine is the only threat left bigger than Lauren. But soon enough, we’ll get a confessional from Tommy saying that they need to go after Lauren. Yep, there he goes talking about throwing a vote on… Noura? Wow, this really is Evil Tommy. That’s a bona fide grudge and everything. Apart from that, there’s really no reason to go for Noura. Sure, she’s just the decoy vote, and Elaine is the main target, but what happened to Lauren? Surely she’d be a prime decoy vote.

Oh well, at least it creates a bit more tension. Elaine and Lauren realize that if Dan is voting for Noura, they can use their votes plus Janet to get her out, sparing the pair of them. A great plan for Elaine, bad for anyone else. Jumping into Tribal Council shows us why. Everyone naturally talks about how tough the game is now they’re down to the finals, but the main story of the night is Elaine. She again bemoans her bad luck, and gets a big speech about how she keeps on fighting until her torch is snuffed, and gets a lot of love from the players as a result. A very touching moment that makes her WAY too dangerous to keep around. The jury loves her. Let her get anywhere near, and you’re screwed. Elaine makes the best argument she can, suggesting she be kept around as basically a shield, an alternate target so no one looks too closely at you. Sort of what Spencer was to Tony on “Survivor Cagayan”. And that’s a good argument… for when you’ve got a bunch of people left. Even not knowing what happens at the end of this episode, you’ve got at most three votes after this one left, and Elaine is no slouch in challenges. She could easily win her way to the end, and swipe that million-dollar check that’s so rightfully yours. I’m not saying Elaine has a better argument to make at this juncture, but I am saying that her best argument falls kind of flat.

In keeping with the overall pattern of this season, Elaine goes home. She is not sent out with the awesome music, but I’m not sad about that. After how heartfelt the Tribal Council was, it would have been inappropriate. I am sorry that Elaine is gone, however. Smart move though it may have been, Elaine was that rare combination of good character and good strategist that this show so richly needs. She was a bright spot in a season that gets darker and darker still, and she will be sorely missed, particularly over Noura, who just doesn’t do it for me. I look forward to Elaine’s inevitable return, unless the show gets cancelled before they get the chance.

But now, you may be noticing that this blog is not ending despite having reached its natural endpoint, just as viewers noticed that she show was not going to credits despite the vote-out having taken place. We skip the fallout from Tribal Council and cut to the next day, where Jeff Probst is walking to camp. Sadly, this is not some new twist in the game, but an old plotline rearing it’s ugly head. There, shoved into the last minute or so of the show, is the reveal that Dan has been removed from the game, and will not be allowed to sit on the jury. Tommy bemoans in confessional how this screws up his game, and we go out on a card saying that Dan was removed for being inappropriate with a producer.

Allow me a second here to go find my “MORONS” megaphone. It may be a little dusty from “Survivor One World” but I’m sure it’s around somewhere. Ah, there it is. Now, if I may…

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS SHOW? OH, SO IF A PLAYER COMPLAINS ABOUT SOMEONE TOUCHING THEM INAPPROPRIATELY, THEY GET OFF WITH A “WARNING” THAT CONVEYS NOTHING, BUT AS SOON AS IT HAPPENS TO A PRODUCER, THE PLAYER HAS TO GO? WHAT THE HELL KIND OF STANDARD IS THAT? DO THEY THINK WE’RE THAT STUPID? THAT WE WON’T NOTICE? ARE WE SOME KIND OF JOKE TO YOU? Now, I already hear the counterargument: “Well, Dan received a warning, and this was his last strike after the warning.” To that, I say, “THEN WHY THE HELL DIDN’T HE GET A WARNING THE FIRST TIME, AND WHY THE HELL DIDN’T HIS SECOND VIOLATION WITH KELLEE RESULT IN THIS? I swear, I’m even more pissed off now than I was at the Kellee boot with all this. Yes, production handled that poorly, but this just feels like them doubling down on the whole fiasco. Not only did their negligence allow this to happen again (true, they’re not responsible for Dan’s actions, but they are responsible for the safety of their cast, and Dan’s continued presence jeopardized that), but it comes across as them being held to a different standard than the cast, which is just wrong on so many levels. But the real kicker here for me is that, for all the flaws of Kellee’s boot, the show at least showed us what happened, and how and why it went wrong. They were up front about the incident. By both not showing us any of the leadup and sticking it at the end of the episode, it feels like they were trying to sweep this unpleasantness under the rug, which is the complete wrong move. Show it, own up to it, and explain what you’re going to do to prevent it in the future. For as uncomfortable as it is, lay it bare to show how wrong it is. Now, they say the incident happened off-camera, but you’ve already had the producer’s voice in the show. Why not bring the producer on to explain what happened? And if, for some dumb reason, that’s not possible, at least have more buildup than this. Have the players talk about Dan being taken away, and what they think’s going on. Don’t just shove this at the end of the episode like it’s nothing. Because it’s not.

Ugh, this episode was never going to get a rave review from me. True, it’s hardly the worst this show has produced, and I would even say is overall a pretty good episode of the season for how it bookends some plot lines (the talk of gendered alliances), and some nice human moments (the sign of lost souls), but is overall lost in the quagmire of pointless strategizing and a continued emphasis on the philosophy of “You need idols and advantages to win this game.” But the whole Dan thing coming back, and being so poorly handled, just makes me sick, and puts this episode down at the bottom of the season, along with the OTHER Dan is a creep episode. Still, if there’s one silver lining, his elimination this episode means I only have to rank five people left in who’s most to least likely to win. Speaking of which…

LAUREN-My top spot is always reserved for the person who “If they get to the end, they win.”, and this year that title goes to Lauren. She and Tommy have both played stellar social games, but Lauren also has an immunity win and higher visibility in her corner. Tommy’s a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, which is great for getting stuff done, less good for actually winning the game. With these victories, Lauren makes it a slam dunk for her to win if she gets to the end, but harder for her to actually do so.

TOMMY-Like I said, a stellar social game, but not many firm victories. If he eliminates Lauren, that’s a feather in his cap, and gets back any votes Lauren might siphon off of him. He says he’s down and out with Dan gone, but with everyone else recognizing Lauren’s threat level, I think he’s still got a decent shot. He beats anybody but her, and since everyone likes him, I don’t see them targeting him.

JANET-While not as social as Lauren or Tommy, Janet’s just likable in her own right. She is who she is, and won’t compromise that for anything. I get the feeling, if she gets to the end, the jury will respect that. Add to that some good plays when she was swapped to Lairo (the Tom boot is a particular feather in her cap), and I think Janet’s got a decent shot. It’s a testament to how good Tommy and Lauren’s social games are that they’re the only thing preventing a guaranteed win for Janet.

DEAN-Dean’s not out of the competition yet, but he’s got an uphill battle if he wants to win. True, he’s been the underdog with no real alliance, and so hasn’t pissed off anybody, plus is the last remaining Lairo. But tell me, what victories can Dean point to? Every move he’s made for himself has pretty much made him look like a goober, to the point that he can’t be taken seriously. True, he did play Kellee’s idol correctly, but Kellee can confirm that that move was more her than him, leading to that not really being a victory for Dean. He has a much better shot if he plays that idol nullifier correctly, but without that, I don’t see a Dean victory in the cards.

NOURA-No one respects Noura. No one understands Noura, and that includes Noura. This jury will not reward a crazy game. You want her in the end with you.

A quick heads-up: I stupidly forgot to ask for the day following the finale off. I’ll still watch it live, but if I have to work the next day, I just won’t have time to blog about it immediately afterwards. I promise, as always, not to get any other opinions until I blog, but it won’t be out until like Thursday or Friday instead of Wednesday night. Sorry for any inconvenience, but this doesn’t pay the bills for me.

Man, this show really has its priorities screwed up this season.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 11: Mostly Pointless

Here, we see the elusive “Live Tribal” in its natural habitat. Claimed sightings of this beast are common, but rarely are they correct identifications. While this one does seem confirmed by scientists, we also see the dangers this beast can pose to the ecosystem: Making everything pointless.

Having dispensed with a recap of previous episodes, the show now goes on a cutting spree, and cuts the very thing it replaced the recap with. Hence, we start things off at our reward challenge. As advertised, it’s the loved ones challenge, which is as nice and heartwarming as one would expect. There’s no cringe-worthy moments as the family members are introduced (but just you wait, the cringe is right around the corner), so we’ll just touch on a couple that either merit commentary or are particularly heartwarming. Janet’s husband comes out in a pink shirt, indicating that the family is having a girl. Nice bit of news, and a creative way for a gender reveal without being overblown. Dan has his 13-year-old son come on, which is a nice touch, since we don’t see it that often. However, I take issue with Probst calling him “The youngest person ever on ‘Survivor’.” Even leaving aside the various young kids you’ve given supplies to, have you perhaps forgotten Boston, the son of Shane Powers from “Survivor Exile Island”? He was on the show just as much, if not more than Dan’s son, and was also 13 years old at the time. I’m sure that Dan’s son probably wins out by a matter of months, but it’s the principle of the thing! I will not have “Survivor Exile Island” erased from continuity, dammit! It’s not “Survivor Edge of Extinction”! The winner for “Most Heartwarming Reunion”, though, goes to Eliane and her partner. It’s not as tearful as some others, but the pair clearly share a bond, and Elaine gets a good talk about how she wasn’t sure her partner’s children would accept their union. What goes unsaid, but also worth mentioning, is the bravery of them being a lesbian couple in Kentucky. We don’t get a confessional about it, but Kentucky is not the most LGBT friendly place on Earth, and now your relationship is being laid bare on national TV. That takes some guts, and sends a good message, but doesn’t drive it into the ground unnecessarily. It just lets a nice moment be, without needing to draw attention to “HEY! LOOK AT THE PROGRESSIVE THING WE’RE DOING!” Enjoy the compliment, show. It’s one of the few you’ll be getting tonight.

Our challenge is a generic obstacle course run in pairs. The challenge itself is not worth talking about, but I’ll note that our pairs are Dan and Noura, Dean and Elaine, Tommy and Janet, and Lauren and Karishma. Remember when I said that the show was doing a good job of not patting itself on the back unnecessarily? Yeah, throw that out the window. You see, Noura’s sister has some vision problems, and so can’t really see the challenge from the family gallery. As such, the show does the proper thing, and has her stand next to Probst so she can cheer appropriately with the rest of the family members. The trouble is that Probst needs to keep drawing attention to this fact, like it’s some big feat for the show to be fair to someone with vision trouble. It’s not like this is a common courtesy thing that you should have been doing regardless, right? At most, maybe mentioning it once as an explanation to the audience would have been appropriate. With how much Probst emphasizes it, it just feels forced and fake, like the show did this more to pat themselves on the back than to be fair to everyone. On a season that doesn’t need a more sickening taste in one’s mouth, this is just unfortunate.

I’d favor either Tommy and Janet or Dean and Eliane to win this challenge, but everyone manages to get to the last leg together, since it involves throwing a single sandbag onto a small platform (gee, haven’t seen that on “Survivor” before!). Tommy and Janet pull it out, though, only to be given the schmuck bait that is the family reward challenge. They get picnics with their loved ones, but now get to pick two more people to come with. Janet goes first, picking Dan. Now, despite me giving these two some flak, Dan is not the worst choice. With how high emotions run with this particular challenge, more than with any other reward challenge, you NEED to pick the swing votes to come along, lest they get mad and turn on you. While I wouldn’t describe Dan as a “swing vote” he has been shown to hold a grudge, so I could see the logic in picking him. What I CAN”T see is Tommy’s logic in picking Lauren. This is the LAST person Tommy should be picking. Everyone knows they’re together, and emphasizing that fact doesn’t help matters. Plus, if Lauren’s already loyal to you, you don’t need to earn that loyalty further. And perhaps you’ve forgotten how much Elaine’s been saving your butt in the past couple of episodes? Didn’t think maybe you could pay her back, while still keeping her loyal yet not taking her to the end? Noura, as we’ll soon see, would also have been a wise choice, but regardless, Tommy did a dumb.

Karishma’s on the warpath after the challenge, but before we get into that, we have to see our players and loved ones enjoying themselves. Nothing much comes of this, but they do scoff at the people they left back at camp. Lauren especially is dismissive of their prospects, stating that they have Noura wrapped around their fingers, and the group will in no way come together to make a plan to get one of that foursome out. At first, it seems like she might actually be right, since Noura is so busy ranting about how upset she is to be the only original Vokai left out of the reward that they simply won’t have time to strategize. However, our remaining players are rewarded for listening to Noura’s rant by having her declare loyalty to all of them. Everyone agrees that this foursome is in control, and needs to be broken up. Even Dean finally seems to be coming out of his “bro-down” reverie, and acknowledging that he needs a different strategy if he wants to get farther in the game. And while they celebrate, I have to take a moment to talk about what this says about Tribe dynamics.

Up until this point, the season’s done a good job of keeping the exact members of the dominant alliance under wraps. The Tommy/Lauren bond was tough to keep quiet, but exactly who else was in the majority was hard to pin down. This episode tells us that the core includes Janet and Dan, which would be fine if that made any sense. The Dan part is understandable, but where did Janet come from? Only a few episodes ago, she seemed to be the primary target of Tommy and Lauren. Now she’s with them? Either this is some next-level strategy we mere mortals cannot comprehend, or the show just purposefully lied to us. Kudos to them if they did, since they did it masterfully, but the fact still remains that this feels kind of cheap, especially since, for all the talk about how dynamic the alliances on this season are, it seems to be boiling down to “Original Lairo versus Original Vokai”. Because we’ve never seen that before. Frankly, the whole thing feels like a con. A well-made con, but a con nonetheless, and it retroactively sours me on the season somewhat. Because we didn’t have enough of that already.

Back to our strategizing four, they quickly realize that four is not enough, and so either need to pull in one more person or find an idol. Sadly, the go with the less-intriguing option “B”, leading Elaine to find an idol for the group’s use. They collectively agree to go for Lauren, since she’s the biggest threat in terms of the jury. Personally, despite his dumb move earlier, I’d say this is a feather in Tommy’s cap. Both he and Lauren have been living and dying by their social games, but the fact that Tommy’s well-liked, yet also not talked about as a threat, means, to my mind, he’s playing better than Lauren. Granted, this also means Tommy needs to get rid of Lauren before the end, lest she sweep up votes he could otherwise claim at Final Tribal Council, but still, good on him.

Our immunity challenge is, you guessed it, another endurance challenge, in this case the one involving holding a ball against a pole with a rolling pin. It’s really not worth mentioning, save for Lauren’s emotional fight. The woman was literally CRYING trying to win, so it was nice to see her effort rewarded, especially since Elaine is no pushover in this department either. That said, since Lauren was the ONLY target presented to us prior to the immunity challenge, it pretty much makes the first half of the episode POINTLESS!

Don’t worry, though, our next half isn’t much better. With Lauren no longer available, the new foursome switch to plan “B”. In this case, plan “B” is Tommy, since he’s “Lauren’s right-hand man”. I’d personally say it’s because he’s a major social threat, but they’re right for the wrong reasons. Can’t blame them too much. Things look even better for them when it turns out the other four are SO convinced of their superiority that they’re even going to split the vote between Elaine and Karishma. Karishma I get. If you’re not going to use her for her vote, all she’s good for is as a number for the other side, so why not get rid of her. But Eliane? You don’t know she has an idol, and she’s worked with you in the past. I’d have said get rid of Dean before her. Not targeting Dean works in their favor in the end, though, as Dean is our weak link this time. Now, some might say that Noura’s the weak link, but her craziness is well-established at this point. Dean’s the one who doubts, which seems somewhat justified as we see Noura tying herself up in knots trying to figure out the best move based on the possibilities. This is what she should be doing, of course, but she’s doing it in such a convoluted way that she’s just making herself more paranoid than necessary. Add onto that at least a bit of skepticism from the other four, and despite the relative pointlessness of the episode so far, we’ve still got some enjoyable misdirection.

Ah, but then we see exactly WHY nothing of consequence could happen before Tribal Council: Everything of consequence happens AT Tribal Council! Yes, while I think both fans and the show are too quick to call “Live Tribal” these days, I do think this is one case where things legitimately got shaken up at Tribal Council. We’re barely two “Generic Probst Questions” into the proceedings when Dean whispers to Tommy that his name’s come up, but that he (Dean) won’t go for it. At the time, I wasn’t sure if this was a double-bluff by Dean to look better towards Tommy on the jury, or if Dean was legitimately trying to blow up a plan that would benefit him. Having now seen the entirety of Tribal Council, I favor the latter explanation. From what little we’ve seen of Dean’s strategy, he’s been big on the physical threats teaming up, and I think he sees Tommy as a shield he doesn’t want to get rid of just yet, even though they’re all close to the end. That said, as Dean himself mentioned earlier, however bad he wants it, I don’t think it’s going to happen. As Dean demonstrated with Kellee, one saved vote does not buy loyalty. If the foursome left out of the reward are offering you a better deal, take it. Fortunately for Dean, he’s spared any backlash since people immediately turn to Noura to find out if she flipped. Since this is Noura, she goes off, and starts spilling the beans on everything. Now, a little bit of honesty coupled with a lie (“Yeah, they approached me, and I debated it, but I wasn’t going to do it.”) played off with skill might have helped Noura. I’m not sure she had the skill to do it well, but it would have been an attempt. But no, she spills everything, including the presence of Elaine’s idol, thereby killing any hope the foursome left out of the reward had of coming together. Noura caps off the performance by saying that Dean, not her, started this. Technically true, but Noura, when you make such a spectacle of yourself, and make the whole procedure worse for everyone, you might as well have.

I’ll spare you a blow-by-blow (both out of me being tired, and it needing to be experienced for oneself), but this is some great chaos. Unlike the chaos of, say “Survivor Game Changers”, we can follow this, but still have the pandemonium of lies being flung about, and people questioning people. Even Boston Rob and Sandra get some good commentary in, ripping Noura a new one for lying so poorly. This may be the first time I’m actually glad they’re at Tribal Council.

You may have noticed that I skipped over the smart mover for everyone. I’ve hinted at it, but not talked about it explicitly. That’s because, like this episode, none of it matters as of Tribal Council. Little strategizing happens, and what there was gets thrown off the crazy train. Noura seems to be the consensus boot, and at this point, I can’t really argue with it. Sure, she’s easy to beat in the end, but she’s now crossed to the point where she’s going full Keith Nale (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) and giving away secrets she shouldn’t be giving away. This makes her a liability to everyone, a good consensus boot, and for the group that has been in power, keeps them in power.

And yet they go for Karishma. Not the worst target, but as I just laid out, I think not the best one either. On top of that, I’m sorry to see Karishma go. She was never my favorite player, but there was something intriguing about the way she just kept hanging on, despite constantly being the target. Much more fascinating than Noura’s general kookiness, in my opinion.

The last ten minutes of this episode were great! I just wish the first fifty justified them. Don’t get me wrong, this was a fantastic finale to the episode, probably the best of the season so far. Hell, it left Probst speechless. That in itself is a feat. But most of the rest of it just didn’t matter, because it all happened at Tribal Council. We could have had a ten-minute episode, and gotten just as much out of it. That makes for a real mixed bag. Next week promises some better intrigue. Hopefully it delivers.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 10: The Editors Go Crazy

The “Survivor” editing team. Some of the best at what they do. Purveyors of humor on many a season. Check out Russell Swan’s idol hunt on “Survivor Philippines” if you doubt my claim. Yet tonight, we get proof that there can be “Too much of a good thing”, and they weaken what was already a poor episode to begin with. So much so that the most exciting thing in this blog is going to be another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Bit of a quick point, and actually a repeat of a point I made two blogs ago, but a missed point nonetheless. Amongst Missy’s arguments as to why she should stay, particularly after seeing Aaron leave at the previous Tribal Council, was a “People of color should stick together”, and an echo of Cirie’s point from “Survivor Game Changers” about the rarity of multiple women of color making the merge. A pretty solid, human moment, ruined once again by Probst’s need to inject himself into the situation, and to point out how much of a “moment” this is. Like I’ve said before, Probst, the way for you to strengthen these moments is to just LET THEM BE! It makes for a stronger message. When you try and constantly point them out, not only do you make us feel ill, but you weaken the moment overall as a result. Not saying that the argument would have changed the outcome of the episode or anything, but it would have been nice to just let a human moment be.

Speaking of Tribal Council, Lauren is initially worried about the outcome of the second one, so much so that she can’t even celebrate the ouster of Aaron. She and Tommy may not have been on the same team last episode, but they are on the same wavelength, both wanting Missy out to cement their power. Lauren, however, is pretty good at reading the room, and rightly predicts trouble for Tommy. Of course, as we know from having watched the episode, she needn’t have worried. Tommy returns, and the pair celebrate their good fortune. As well they should. They’ve cemented themselves as the Domenick and Wendell (“Survivor Ghost Island”) of the season: Savvy players that can run the season with little competition, with the only player savvy enough to stop them (Elaine, playing the role of Kellyn), being disinclined to do so. Glad all tension just went out of the season.

Yes, most everyone left has a reason to celebrate. About the only exception is Elizabeth, who just lost… Yeah, pretty much all her main allies. Put that way, she takes the whole thing quite well, stating that while she’s upset, she knows why it had to be done. Props to her for saying the right things to say in this situation. The read could have done with a bit more heart and sincerity in it, but much as I like Elizabeth, she has been kind of “flat” this whole season, so maybe it’s just her speaking style. No one seems to hold it against her, so in the end, I can’t really fault her.

The next morning, Tommy and Lauren regroup their strategy. Dean comes over and pitches his plan to get out what he calls the “goat army”, specifically Noura and Karishma. It’s basically his “meat shields” idea from last episode, minus the Aaron. Tommy admits he’s sympathetic, but also notes that Elizabeth is a major threat in confessional, and says he may need to go for her first. This is jumping the gun here, since I usually save my strategy thoughts for when targets start being finalized, but I will say that Tommy is absolutely correct here. Yes, you don’t want to go too big on the “get out the threats” route, since Tommy is fast becoming the biggest threat, but you can frame targeting Elizabeth not as a threat, but as an enemy. The trouble with Elizabeth is that she has no real allies right now, and no incentive to work with you. All this makes her a threat, even more so than the whole “Olympic Athlete” thing, and means she needs to go.

Someone else needs to go as well, though… To the Island of the Idols! Yes, the producer’s restraint has reached its limits (plus it actually fits within the time frame of the show now), and it’s time to send one person back. Continuing with our shout outs to “Survivor Ghost Island”, the selection method is exactly the same as the pre-merge selection for who goes to Ghost Island: Come to a unanimous decision, or draw lots. Unlike last time, some people are clamoring to go. And by some people, I mean Karishma and Lauren, the former because she’s still a major target, and the latter to consolidate power in her alliance. As always on “Survivor” social game wins out, and the tribe decides to send Lauren. Of course, Karishma could pull a Shirin (“Survivor Worlds Apart”) and be the dissenting voice that denies her, but as she rightly points out, making waves over such a little thing is more trouble than it’s worth.

After a “humorous” interlude involving a chicken stealing Sandra’s papaya, Lauren arrives and does her best impression of Amber Brkich (“Survivor The Australian Outback”), saying “Oh my God!” over and over. This pleases Boston Rob, and he bestows his favor upon Lauren. You see, up until this point, people have gotten “lessons” that are either things they genuinely need to work on, or things that are neutral to them. Here, Lauren gets a lesson in what is dubbed “situational awareness”, but is really “interpersonal awareness”, and either way, plays to Lauren’s strengths. Basically, she gets told the immunity challenge (which is a repeat from “Survivor Ghost Island”. What is up with all the references to that season this episode? Don’t get me wrong, it’s underrated, but it’s not great enough to be deserving of THIS much attention), as well as that it’s an eat or compete challenge for breakfast. She has to pick one potential winner of the challenge. Get it right, she gets an idol good for two Tribal Councils. Get it wrong, she loses her vote. As Lauren herself rightly points out, those aren’t good odds. You’re basically picking a 1/9 shot, and even if you eliminate half of the people for various reasons (challenge weakness or desire to eat), that’s still only a 25% chance that you win. Bad enough in and of itself, but after those crazy couple of Tribal Councils, every vote is important. For me, losing such a vote would be too big a risk. Boston Rob therefore decides to sweeten the pot with better odds (and not just seemingly better odds like he talked about doing pre-season) giving Lauren two picks instead of one. Objectively better odds, but I still say the risk is too great, even for Lauren with her reading of others. Lauren disagrees, however, and with the repeated flashbacks when discussing each person, she comes down on Elizabeth and Noura to win, since this challenge is an endurance challenge involving holding a ball against a wood block with an upward pull system. Not bad choices, though I’m surprised Elaine and Tommy weren’t in the mix.

Say, you know what we haven’t had in a while? Dean making a fool of himself! It seems despite the skepticism of Jamal’s “gift” from two episodes ago, people have now swung around to thinking the “legacy advantage” is real. I guess you did your job after all, Jamal. Not that it does you much good besides a satisfying “gotcha” since you’re already on the jury, but satisfying nonetheless. After getting confirmation from Janet on the veracity of the advantage, Dean decides to double down on the idiocy by plagiarizing the fake advantage, so that he can bluff with the fake and save the “real” fake for the final six. If this were a legit advantage, this would actually be kind of a smart play. But it’s not, and anyone with brain cells should realize that, so I’m not sorry Dean gets the dodo music here.

Only the return of Lauren could stop this madness, so return she does. When asked what went down, she talks in the same vein as Noura did during her trip (which should make everyone immediately suspicious), and reveals the challenge, as well as the eat or compete twist. It at first seems like she’ll continue keeping the nature of her twist a secret, but she spills the beans in the end. Granted, it’s only to Tommy, who’s a really good co-conspirator for her, so ultimately probably a good move. It just seems weird that the trend gets bucked NOW of all times. Since Tommy wants Lauren to have that idol (presumably she’s selling it as “an idol for both of us”), he goes around, talking up the feast aspect to those that Lauren didn’t bet on. Gotta admit, it’s good gameplay. If Lauren did the convincing, she’d be seen as suspicious (again, see Noura), but Tommy’s a natural salesman, and despite his closeness with Lauren, doesn’t come off as someone with an agenda.

Consequently, after Probst feigns indignation at the lack of reaction to the feast (the man HAD to know they’d been informed), six of the nine choose to sit out, a surprise even to me. Only Karishma, Noura, and Elizabeth choose to compete, better odds that Lauren could have possibly hoped for. Even better for her, Karishma is out in the first 30 seconds or so, guaranteeing her the idol no matter what. Even better for the audience, Karishma gets a really touching emotional moment where she breaks down about trying even when something doesn’t play to her strengths. Probst, while he addresses the moment, wisely lets it play out largely without commentary. About the worst that can be said is that the challenge is over quickly by endurance standards, though you knew that was coming. Probst talked up the 45-minute record like it was a major feat, but dude, we’ve seen 12-hour endurance challenges. Get that JV-junk out of here.

Noura ends up our victor, and kudos to her from learning from her mistake. She keeps going in the challenge in the hopes that it makes the feast last longer, before Probst puts the kibosh on it. We of course see Tommy and Lauren pick up the idol, but there’s not much beyond that. There’s very little strategizing to be done, since Elizabeth is largely a consensus boot (though Elaine isn’t terribly happy about it), and there’s enough of a majority to split the votes between her and Karishma. The only issue comes if one of them has an idol. Karishma is still reeling emotionally, and I hate to pick on her, but Noura stole her bag to look through it, and if NOURA is able to steal your bag, you must not be paying even the remotest bit of attention. About the only upside for Karishma here is that this is Noura, so despite finding a note and two things with seashells, she thinks there’s no idol.

In order to convince Karishma not to blow up the plan, Dan tells her the partial truth. Elizabeth being the target is correct, but he tries to sell her on Janet being the other swing vote. Karishma, being occasionally blind, but not stupid, sees through this, and goes to talk to Elizabeth. Fortunately Lauren can read lips, and so sees Dan’s name be brought up between the pair. Lauren initially tries to keep Dan contained when he wants to go over and bust up the conversation, but Dan cannot be contained. Dan, did you learn nothing from Missy last episode? Strong-arming Karishma is NOT the way to go. Consequently, now she’s bringing her idol, the ONLY reason you would have to vote her out, and no one even knows about that!

Our Tribal Council is unfortunately just as dull as the rest of the episode. The lowlight is Probst forcing racing metaphors into the conversation. Metaphors can be painful enough when they’re NOT obviously planned by production. Hell, Tommy had a decent one comparing making a decision about who to vote out to where to take his girlfriend to dinner, but you force in the racing one? Between this and the obvious boot, not even the presence of the awesome music can save this one, though it tries valiantly. It’s really bad when the highlight is Boston Rob and Sandra recapping what we saw EARLIER IN THE EPISODE!

The outcome may be obvious, but this is modern “Survivor”. Shenanigans must be had! Dean plays his “fake” fake Legacy Advantage, and does a poor job feigning surprise. Sadly, it also makes Tommy a moron, as he also believes in its veracity. It does, however, cause Karishma to play her idol, which I can’t fault her on. Hell, I might have played it last time if I were here, and given that she’s portrayed as the alternate boot here, I can’t fault her. What I CAN fault is Lauren playing her own idol on herself. Why? What possible reason did you have to think you were the alternate target? Better safe than sorry, I suppose, and since the idol was only good one more vote, you don’t lose much, but you don’t gain much either. The jury’s not going to look at you fondly for playing an idol incorrectly, compared to Karishma’s correct play tonight, and Tommy seemed a little miffed that a “shared” idol got played without his consent.

If one person comes off well from this Tribal Council, it’s Karishma. For reasons I still can’t fathom, she was the main target tonight, and negates seven votes against her. Good for her. For all my smack-talk, playing an idol correctly is hard, so kudos to Karishma for pulling it off. This leads to a tie between Elizabeth and Janet (presumably Karishma voted for Elizabeth, and Elizabeth voted for Janet), leading to the obvious outcome of Elizabeth going home. My, that was a convoluted way to get to the outcome we all knew was coming. Painful as it is to see one of my winner picks go home, I can’t say I’m too broken up about it. Elizabeth was by no means BAD to watch, but much like this episode, she just didn’t bring much to the table, and I can’t say her presence will be majorly missed.

How many ways can I say it? This episode was BORING! An obvious outcome, and so much time spent on flashbacks and on Island of the Idols, that the whole thing just felt like a chore. Granted, they didn’t have the best material to work with, but surely we could do better than this?

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 9: The Cosby Show

MATT’S MESS-UP

A bit of a sober way to start the blog today, but I feel that’s what’s needed. As many of you know, the tagline of “Idol Speculation” is “My knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to.” I hold myself to that, giving my unfiltered opinion immediately after the show. However, there are times where, with the benefit of hindsight, I change my mind. Last episode is one of those instances. I gave the episode some praise in my most recent blog, but the fact is that the more I think about it, the scummier I feel. So, let’s go through things item by item, and give my general thoughts on each part of the issue.

First, the couple of things I misinterpreted/failed to mention in my previous blog. A lot has rightly been made of Miss and Elizabeth basically using Kellee’s feelings about Dan to blindside her, notable later telling Dan that they said no such things. At the time, I paid this no mind, because my interpretation was that they DID feel that way, and they were lying to Dan to make HIM feel better, since it was better for their game. But no, it has come out that they used Kellee’s feelings, and yeah, that’s pretty scummy of them, and makes me think the less of them as a whole. Speaking of Dan, I failed to mention his muttered smugness towards the bootees of the previous episode, which, even with the most generous interpretation of Dan’s actions, is a low blow, dude.

But the big thing I want to talk about is the production side of things here. I wrote a lot of praise for production on the previous episode. I felt they dealt with the situation in a sober and serious manner. Then, as is my tradition, I go and read other people’s thoughts on the episode, and, to put it mildly, they did not agree with me. In fact, they brought up a number of points that I agreed with. Notably, that they should have had this talk with Dan about his behavior BEFORE the issue got this far, and that Kellee should have been able to have a say at the first Tribal Council after she was voted out. Admittedly, the latter could be argued as a violation of game rules, but given that it led to a situation where people were talking ABOUT her when she was RIGHT THERE, I feel like this is one area where we could bend the rules. All that plus my dislike of Probst for forcing a “moment” at the second Tribal Council really makes me unhappy with production over all these proceedings. That said, I do cut production a little slack, and I’ll explain why in the next paragraph.

Let me preface everything I’m about to say by pointing out that yes, production could have handled things better, and no, none of what I’m about to say is an excuse for any of their actions. But I think production was in a no-win situation with this whole affair. The trouble is that production wants to strike a balance between doing what’s morally right, and what’s “fair” in terms of the game. And unfortunately, past precedent with regards to sexual misconduct says to not interfere. I mentioned the “Grindgate” incident from “Survivor Thailand”, and I think that was heavily on their minds when deciding what to do. After all, in that situation, which is comparable in seriousness to the current situation, production let the contestants sort things out. Now again, that doesn’t mean that’s all they should think about in this situation. But consider in terms of lawsuits: If you’re on the production of the show, are you more worried about being sued by Kellee, who has had to sign away a lot of her rights in the contracts they have every contestant sign, thereby giving production something of a barrier to a lawsuit, or Dan, who if you remove him, has fair grounds to say that he was denied money and placement in the game by production? Again none of this makes production ok, but I understand why they did what they did.

For me, there’s also an element of production learning from all this. Yes, as I’ve said, we’ve had situations like this previously, from “Grindgate” to the Richard and Sue situation in “Survivor All-Stars”. But that was a very different era in terms of our conversations about sexual harassment, so for me, this is really the first time that “Survivor” has really had to confront this issue, and their part in it, in this environment. Thus, I give production the benefit of a doubt, and think they’re just making a mistake, rather than acting with malice aforethought. That said, I’m all for questioning authority, and completely understand if people think that production does not deserve that chance. If something like this happens again, and they react in the same way, I’m right there with you. If you feel that this is so triggering that you simply cannot watch “Survivor” anymore, I understand, and do not judge. But I, as an individual, am willing to give production a chance to show that they’ve learned and do better. If they don’t, it might be enough to stop watching the show.

Given how little happens in this episode, this blog may already be half-over. Soberly heading back to camp after a heavy Tribal Council, Janet notes that she’s royally screwed, thereby ensuring that Janet is safe. Janet, however, is not the only person ensuring their safety through edit at this point. Get ready for a heaping helping of Karishma this episode. She was pretty quiet last episode, but she’s back with a vengeance now. She comes in literally screaming, as a rat apparently crawled in her mouth. So in other words, she had the natural reaction. Elizabeth is pretty beat up in the morning as well. Seeing people cuddling, I thought Dan STILL somehow hadn’t got the message about his behavior, but no, it’s just the rain. Again, understandable. Karishma will not be denied, however. She plops herself down in the hammock, leading Noura to a confessional tirade about how Karishma isn’t doing anything for the tribe. A bit hard to deny, since Karishma seems to be sleeping sitting up. Still, Noura is not to be denied, and badgers Karishma into going on a coconut hunt.

This is a big mistake. If someone’s a slouch around camp, and you want them out, you encourage that behavior. Play it up. Keep them in everyone’s minds, and let them see the burden this player is to the tribe. Plus, if you send them off, they have a chance of finding an idol. Which is exactly what Karishma does. Admittedly this idol seemed to “pop” a lot more from its hiding place than previous idols, but I don’t mean to belittle Karishma’s accomplishment. An idol find is an idol find, and Karishma is rightly proud of herself. She’s also right that she needs it, since as she comes back from an hour of hunting with two measly coconuts, we see Noura, Lauren, and Tommy talking about the need to get Karishma out, with Janet as a backup. Needing an excuse, Karishma plays up her illness. Lauren, out of compassion, suggests calling for the doctor, which Karishma denies, though I’m not sure why. If the doctor comes, and there’s not really anything wrong with you, so what? Sure, it looks like you’re playing up the “woe is me” bit a bit if there’s really nothing wrong with you, but hey, you’re already on the bottom, and you lose a lot of goodwill by being so insistent, so what’s the harm?

One point about this season as a whole: While we don’t have any “Island of the Idols” this episode, which I’m overall for (though the title of the season is starting to seem like a lie), and I don’t feel it usually takes up too much time, I think we’ve missed something here. It’s becoming clear this new merge tribe has multiple shelters. Why? Was it a space thing? Because of Dan? Alliance segregation? Gender segregation? There’s a story here, a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the tribe, and I’m sad we don’t get it.

Off to our immunity challenge. Yes, already. You see, the show is doing the “Divide into two groups and vote separately” thing they tried on “Survivor Ghost Island”. Not the worst idea to try again, but since that fell fairly flat this time, I’m surprised to see it come back. Now is not the time, however, purely because of the odd number of contestants left, making for uneven teams. There’s an issue of fairness and number of votes there right off the bat, but there’s more issues I’ll get to in a bit. Second, while both this season and “Survivor Ghost Island” had fairly solid majorities, it felt more solid on the latter season, making the twist seem more of a necessity. Here, there’s more flexibility, and thus, to me, less need for the twist. As to the challenge itself, it’s pretty lame. Balancing on a beam, contestants keep a ball circling the inside of a hoop. Last people standing for each team wins immunity. Definitely a tough challenge, and requires a different skill set than most challenges, but it’s just dumb-looking, and doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from other challenges. Oh, and Probst, no, not all strategies are created equal. Spinning the ball fast does not take significantly more energy than spinning it slowly, and the extra force helps keep the ball in the hoop. Fast is the way to go.

After the challenge starts, Probst pulls a classic “dick move” by telling them the teams are also playing for reward AFTER the challenge starts. The last person standing overall wins peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their whole team, as well as the right to go to Tribal Council second. This is why, in the issue of fairness, the teams NEEDED to be equal. Could you really not have held this challenge for one more episode cycle?

In the end, the edge doesn’t matter, however. That’s because the winner on Purple is Noura, having beaten out Dean, Dan, Aaron, Janet, and Lauren. Noura being Noura, was not paying attention to the instructions, and drops her hoop in celebration, leaving just Elaine and Missy to battle it out on Orange, Tommy, Karishma, and Elizabeth having fallen out already. Good for them, but nothing much exciting about the challenge.

Probst sends the orange team back to the Lumuwaku camp, while he twists the knife further for the purple team. They’re sent out the old Lairo camp, confirming by proxy that the merge camp is the Vokai camp. Janet is naturally targeted, but realizes this, and so seeks to turn the narrative around. Noura is of the same mind. She may be a bit on the crazy side, but even she can see the blindingly obvious. Aaron has won a bunch of immunity challenges. He’s a major player in the majority alliance, which a number of players in this group have a reason to want to break up. If you’re outside of the majority, like Janet or Dean, it keeps things chaotic and gives you a chance to get back in the majority. f you’re a part of that majority, like Lauren, Noura, and Dan, it gets rid of a major threat and original Lairo member in that alliance, thereby improving your overall odds. Since this group is smart overall, pretty much everyone readily agrees to this plan. But, of course, we need someone to do a dumb in order for us to have tension at this Tribal Council. Dean, as is his want, obliges by talking about wanting to keep “threats” around so he isn’t targeted. Not the worst justification I’ve heard, but Dean, even if you’re fairly strong, you don’t LOOK the part. You’ve got room to maneuver if that’s the case, and any shakeup is a good shakeup for you. Dean’s decent at persuasion, though. He even persuades Dan that he’s a challenge threat. Dan, “challenge threat” is not how I think of you, and I would say that even before the events of last episode. It’s Dan’s musings about his place in the game that transition us to the Lumuwaku camp. A fun transition, but I do wish it was someone other than Dan doing the narration.

Karishma is so obvious the plan to be the target tonight, and thanks to her idol, so obviously not going, that we don’t even get any lip service to the idea. Perhaps that’s because everyone’s lips are full of peanut butter, but even when Missy is capable of speaking again, she’s going with a different plan. Yes, it’s time for that foreshadowing from the swap to pay off. Missy still wants to split Lauren and Tommy up, and to be fair, this is the ideal time to do it. You could make an argument that Karishma pulled something (even not knowing she has an idol), so that Lauren has no hard feelings towards you, while still severing her options. And, of course, anything that keeps Karishma safe is good for her. So why is Missy trying to so hard to torpedo her own plan? Seriously? I get that she’s a bit authoritative, but Missy, you’d been so good at persuasion before. I’ve seen worse, but it really felt even to me, and definitely to Karishma, that Missy was bossing her around. Even so, Missy was in a recoverable position, but then tried to stop Karishma from leaving the clearly uncomfortable conversation, and would not let up on her afterward. You really think this is the way to Karishma’s heart?

Missy then makes a second mistake, though I think this one’s more understandable. Being allied with Elaine, Missy fills in Elaine on the boot out Tommy plan. Elaine, however, is not on board, due to her bond with Tommy! Yes, that very special bond with Tommy that supersedes the bond she has with Missy, who she’s been allied with and on the same tribe as since the beginning of the game! A bond so special, we’re not hearing about it before tonight! Look, I get that Tommy’s thing is “the social game”, but if a bond is this strong, perhaps a bit of foreshadowing would be nice. Then again, maybe Elaine’s just feeling confident because of the immunity necklace. She’s certainly doing better at persuading Karishma than Missy, being gentle and kind and understanding. Let it not be said that Missy does not learn from her mistakes, as she talks more gently with Karishma afterward, and makes it more of a conversation. Karishma admits to being conflicted, stating that it’s a battle between her emotions, which are not happy with Missy, and her intellect, which says Tommy is the smarter move. This is really the main disadvantage of the episode: The less intriguing group is going second, making for a weaker finish. For all my snark at Dean, there’s real debate as to whether Aaron or Janet would go home. Aaron’s the clearly smarter move, but I could see this group not playing optimally. Here, however? Time and again, Karishma’s voted with Missy, and there was the foreshadowing that Tommy and Lauren would be broken up. The only things working in Tommy’s favor. His and Elaine’s “bond” that only came up this episode, and him saying he connects with Karishma, despite her mentioning last episode, that Tommy wouldn’t talk to her. Yeah, Tommy is toast, which is unfortunate, as he and Janet are really the only players left that I unequivocally like.

We get a brief scene at the old Lairo camp, with Elaine’s confessional transitioning us again. That’s the coolest thing, though, as nothing much comes of the conversation. Nothing much comes of the Tribal Council either. I’m still not a fan of Rob and Sandra commenting overall, but this first Tribal Council needed it. There was NOTHING going on. Rob noting Dean rolling up his sleeves is fascinating in comparison. Actually, Rob betting on Aaron going, while Sandra betting on Janet helps add to the mystery, as the narrative so far this season is that Sandra is right in her predictions, while Rob is wrong. Adds more to the mystery. However, with a lack of awesome music this group does the smart thing, and Aaron goes home. I’m not sorry to see him go. It’s impressive that he came back from his first episode blindside, and he did have really cool socks, but the dude was at best boring and at worst a bit arrogant. Plus, Janet is fun character and a wonderful human being. Happy to have her around any day. That said, this really seals Tommy’s fate, as seeing Aaron on the jury indicates a “vote out the men” strategy that Karishma is likely to go along with.

Our second Tribal Council is much more lively, owing to Missy’s self-sabotage. I’m still certain that Tommy is going home, but Missy is doing everything in her power to convince me otherwise. After rallying to have a good conversation with Karishma, she’s now going on about how they don’t get along. Granted, Missy did warn Karishma that they would need to bash her, and I applaud her for sneaking in calling jurors Jamal and Kellee “threats”, thereby pandering to them for potential jury votes, while still having it sound natural. It seems, however, that Karishma is not as logical as she says. She flips to vote out Missy. I would complain about Karishma making a bad move, since Missy has been in her corner far more than Tommy, but I can’t because I’m too busy doing my happy dance! After effectively having “the bad guys” win last episode, it’s nice to see one of the people involved get a comeuppance. Plus, once again, any emphasis on the social game is fine by me.

But who should get credit for this move? When Missy asks what happened, Tommy pulls a “don’t screw with me”. But Elaine, in whispers, says that it was her. She gets the credit from Missy, but at what cost. Blatantly violating the “Need to bring me your torch” directive, she whispers to Elizabeth that Elaine needs to die. Elaine, I applaud your jury management, but it doesn’t do you much good if you’re on the jury.

This episode is solid. The few out-of-nowhere plot points kind of drag it down, but overall a decent episode. That said, it’s not enough, and I don’t think anything would be enough. For better or for worse, this season has become like anything associated with Bill Cosby. It can be good quality, it can bring you joy, but with recent developments, it’s going to feel a bit icky watching it. This is a shame, since I like this cast at least ok overall, and there is a lot good to watch here. But now, it’s mostly going to be marred by the spectre of this incident. Between the lackluster last season, controversy this season, and, if the rumors are true, a completely chaotic and idiotic next season, this show may be finally pushing me to quit watching.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 8: Behind the Scenes

First off, my apologies for the lateness of this blog. I usually try to spot these things ahead of time, but didn’t anticipate the merge episode being double-length. Couple that with me needing to get up at my usual time for work, plus the blog both starting later and being extra long, and you’ve got a recipe for a blog you’ve got to wait for. That said, I’ve avoided reading other people’s thoughts on the episode, so you still get my unfiltered opinions. And ooh boy, this is going to be unlike most other episodes you see me blog.

Questions abound at Lairo as they return from Tribal Council, as one would expect after a blindside. Here, we see the pitfall in Kellee hinging her plan on Noura voting the way she expects. Not only is Noura a bit unreliable in this regard, but also tends to have a bit of a problem keeping her mouth shut. Questions emerge about who the second vote for Jack was, and Noura initially plays it off quite well, giving a pretty good dumbfounded look. However, after seemingly no pressure, Noura caves and says she was the second vote. Noura then gets questioned on why, and gives up that someone told her to make this move. Noura further professes loyalty to the person, saying she won’t betray her. Five seconds later, Noura is throwing Kellee under the bus. Again, great convoluted plan, Kellee! Jamal and Janet are naturally the most upset about this (being the most gung-ho about voting out Dean), and go over and talk with Kellee. Kellee offers up no real defense, but then Jamal and Janet offer up no real anger. Evidently Jamal is learning from his reaction to the Molly boot. Still, this does not look good for Kellee, which she realizes.

With confirmation that yes, idols can be found at camp now (Jamal having not been to the Island of the Idols at this point most likely means they’re not exclusively there), we get an idol hunting montage. Everyone on the tribe’s in on it. Even Janet, who just last episode said she didn’t want to put a target on her back, is looking. Noura frets about snakes, which makes me wonder why she doesn’t poke around with a stick first. Kellee, being the smartest of the bunch left (convoluted plan notwithstanding), ends up finding the idol, which is wrapped in orange paper. Now, this might just be because the idol’s on Lairo now, but I wonder if Kellee inadvertently found Chelsea’s idol that she never got to play instead. Not that it makes much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, but a fun little trivia note if so.

Not long after, the tribe gets a not that says “Pack your things”, which some immediately say means “merge”. Um, guys? I see the logic there, but a bit of a jump if you ask me. Sure enough, though, our remaining 13 players are whisked off to a feast, and some new blue buffs. This is pretty standard fare, so while our tribe members are celebrating, let’s talk about the new tribe name, Lumuwaku. Give it credit that it’s one of the longest merge tribe names we’ve had in a while that isn’t a repeated syllable. Although it’s not mentioned in the show proper, we also get the backstory behind this name. As a tribute to loved one’s back home, it’s a misappropriation of “Love You, Miss You, Really Wanna Kiss You”. Kind of cheesy, but it does make for a multi-layered name. I’m cool with it.

The game must recommence, though, and Tommy is the one to bring us back. He talks about how easy it would be for the original Vokai to sweep the original Lairo, being up 7-6. Certainly Jamal seems on board with the idea, despite being the one remaining guy who has been REPEATEDLY burned by the original Vokai. Tommy, however, wants to keep his options open. So, he reconvenes with Kellee. Remember how tight they were? How they worked together? How they basically made the decisions for their tribe early in the game? Yeah, throw that out the window. Tommy suggests she and Janet come on board with the new Vokai and run the game. Kellee says no, citing that Missy is a threat. This, to Tommy, means original tribal lines are dead, and he needs a mix to win the game. Look, Tommy, I want to like you, I really do, but this is just stupid! After one failed pitch, which you did a poor job on (he really should have emphasized using Kellee and Janet to oust the four remaining Lairo on that side, to give Kellee and incentive to rejoin), yo just give up on that advantage. Need I remind you that just two episodes ago, you were betrayed by the old Lairo on your tribe? And now you want to work with them? Where the hell did this come from? Look, the philosophy is sound. Work with a coalition, not just a simple majority. In general, I can get behind that. But Tommy, when your game so far has been about getting everyone to like you, and then you suggest betraying people for little reason? Doesn’t seem very likable to me. And again, what incentive does Tommy have for sticking with the new Vokai? Dan and Lauren I get, but the other four are clearly against you. If you can’t pull in some others (like, say, Kellee and Janet), you’re just dooming yourself to fifth place at best. Doesn’t sound very good. I still like the guy, but he REALLY dropped the ball strategy-wise here.

It seems that he and Lauren are all-in on this plan, though, as Lauren goes and informs Missy of Kellee’s plan to target her, cementing Kellee as a target a the upcoming Tribal Council. Look, I get that Kellee is a threat. She needs to go at some point. But right now, for Tommy and Lauren, she’s a USEFUL threat. Let her take the brunt of attacks for making moves, get out a few old Lairo to cement your majority, then blindside her when the time is right. Sure, she has an idol, but you can’t know that! On top of that, Missy is also a threat! Possibly the one person who can unite the old Lairo! And you’re just kowtowing to her right now. If you two get voted out, at this point, you deserve it. Lauren further advises Missy that she ought to win immunity. More on that later.

And now we come to something unlike anything I’ve yet blogged about. An entire segment of rarely-seen footage on “Survivor”. I’m talking, of course, about a peek behind the scenes of how the show gets made.

Now, we know conceptually that this is a show being filmed. There are camera crews with sound crews watching these contestants every minute of every day. Players aren’t just talking to themselves in confessional; they’re talking to a producer who’s asking them questions. But it’s a mark of the professionalism of the show that you so rarely see that. Sure, there’s occasionally times in the show proper where they make their presence known. The challenge on “Survivor Kaoh Rong” where three people got heat stroke comes to mind. The most infamous is probably the “He’s burned pretty bad, Terry.” from “Survivor The Australian Outback.” But usually that happens in the presence of a real medical emergency, where making a show takes a back seat, priority-wise, to saving people’s lives. Here, there’s no immediate danger, but they show us footage that clearly shows production, as well as giving us what I believe is our first ever on-screen producer sound-byte, in order to show us the gravitas of the situation.

And what situation could be so damning that this was needed? Well, Dan’s hands are finally coming to a head. And leg. And chest. And pretty much any female body part they can find. Yes, Kellee may want to vote our Missy, but she’ll still commiserate with her about what a creep Dan’s being. This leads to a flashback montage where we see various shots of Dan putting his hands on people (both ones we’ve seen before, and ones we haven’t) as they’re described. One could argue that it’s a little cheap that we’re just learning about some of this stuff now, but I think it works. Dan’s handsiness is well-established at this point, and since we do get some old footage, it stays in good continuity with the new. Kellee understandably gets somewhat emotional about this, given that she’s had a problem with this before, and despite her talks, it only seems to be getting worse. This is where the producer comes in: to ask if she wants him removed from the game. When she says know, he informs her that she’s always free to say so if she’s uncomfortable.

Now, I’ll be getting into the ramifications for the show as a whole in a minute, but I want to take some time out to discuss the rules conundrum this presents. “Survivor” has relatively few rules about what you can and can’t do in terms of the game, with two hard and fast exceptions to that. You cannot intentionally hurt someone, and you can’t conspire to share the prize money. Clearly, Dan has not done the latter, and you could argue he hasn’t done the former. The former rule usually refers to physically hurting someone, and while Dan is emotionally hurting someone, there’s no physical damage here. As Dan himself will later claim, it’s also possible there’s no intentionality to it. Yet, his removal for this is still discussed. My guess is that they’re including sexual harassment under “physical harm”, and Dan’s actions at the very least border up on this area, given the experiences of the women. Good on the show for being progressive, I say.

Know what else I’ll praise the show for? This whole segment. Yeah, it’s not the only time we’ve seen the production side of things, but it’s one of the most extensive, and it’s a fascinating look. Plus, this would have been so easy to sweep under the rug. Jumping ahead a great ways, while this does come up in conversation a lot, and will be the major focus of the second Tribal Council, Dan faces little in the way of comeuppance for his actions here. The show could easily have gotten away with just showing the complaining to explain why the subject comes up later on in the episode. They cynical might say the show HAD to acknowledge the role it had in this whole scenario, since Janet will later make reference to “the powers that be”, but to me, this comes off as the show saying “Hey, for all that this is a game, we take this shit seriously. This is how it went down, and this is how we handled it.” The only editorializing comes from the players themselves. Scenes are presented, shown, and discussed, all with little fanfare. This culminates in a card from the show as we go to commercial, stating that production talked with all individuals, as well as the group as a whole, and Dan in particular, about proper conduct. Again, could be covering their asses, but I think the show was trying to handle a delicate situation maturely.

Off to our immunity challenge, and as you’d expect, it’s another endurance challenge involving balancing balls. Honestly, I don’t know why I even both explaining these anymore, since they all just blend together. What is more noteworthy is how obvious it is that Missy will win. We had the foreshadowing from her and Lauren, plus these sorts of challenges tend to favor the women. All that makes for a greater surprise, then, when Missy falls out. She lasts a good way in, but still falls short. Hell, none of the women make the finals, as it comes to a showdown between Aaron and Jamal. Aaron takes it when Jamal gives out of nowhere and seems unable to get up. Aaron does the smart thing and checks in on his victory before going over to help Jamal, though I’m glad he did help. Good in terms of keeping up the mystery, bad in terms of having a coherent story. As to our individual immunity idol of the season? Well, it’s better than the tribal one, though it’s not saying much. They keep with the Easter Island Head thing, but add some artfully burned bamboo to make it look creepy. I’ve seen worse, but this one’s not going down in the history books by any stretch.

Kellee is, of course, the main target for the night, but we need some plausibility that someone else will go home instead. There are two ways we get this. One is Dean. While the new Vokai members have a majority on their own, they want as many people in on the vote as possible. As such, Tommy and Lauren talk to Dean about voting for Kellee. Unbeknownst to them, however, Dean feels some debt to Kellee, owing to her saving him last episode. Nothing comes of it yet, but it is a plot thread to bear in mind. Another is Kellee not being content with just one idol. Recognizing that merges often have multiple idols, she goes hunting and sure enough finds a blue idol. While recent track records (Tony Vlachos, Jeremy Collins) would indicate having two idols simultaneously as being a good thing, I still tend to favor the James Clement (“Survivor China”) model, where they make one overconfident, and more trouble than they’re worth. Still Kellee is definitely smarter than James, so she’s still got a chance to make this work.

But of course, all this would be worthless without another target in case Kellee does play her idol. Jamal, as one of the more sensitive people to topics like this, pitches voting out Dan due to the controversy surrounding him. Not a bad idea, when the merge is this big. Rather than going for the big move, merges like this tend to move for the consensus boot, just to ensure the safety of the group as a whole, and avoid the headache of strategizing with so many numbers. Actually, for Tommy and Lauren, voting out Dan would probably be the BETTER move for them, since they piss off fewer people this way. But no, they’re still stuck on the Kellee thing. Whoopee.

Good or bad, this Tribal Council is LONG! You’d think with the surface-level tribe dynamics, this would be an open and shut Tribal Council, but no, we have long discussions and lots of double-talk. Probably the two standout moments (at least the two that stand out nearly 24 hours later) are Dean’s “I’ve gotta be honest.” comment, since his delivery and editing are the one thing that really make it seem like he might blab to Kellee, thus getting her to play her idol. The other is the masterful play by Lauren. Kellee, during voting, looks at her and asks if they’re good. Lauren nods and assures her they are. A simple lie, but brilliantly played off by Lauren. It’s a brilliant play for what I’ve emphasized is the wrong move, but brilliant nonetheless. And all capped off with the awesome music.

We get a commercial break as the votes are tallied, trying in vain to convince us that Dan will go. But no. Doesn’t work. Look, the controversy around Dan is palpable, but if people were more concerned about that than the game, he would have been ejected before this Tribal Council. People are focussed on gameplay now, and the “strategists” have targeted Kellee. Sure enough, she doesn’t play her idols and goes. A dumb move, and one that I can’t even support from a viewer’s perspective. I don’t think Dan is the scum of the Earth or anything, but he’s brought very little, apart from controversy. He’s Ted Rogers (“Survivor Thailand”) lite. Kellee, while making some dumb moves recently, has brought strategy to the game, and crazy, out of the box thinking, which we always need more of. Point being, I’m very much in favor of her getting a second chance somewhere down the line. Not the greatest game ever played, but a strong showing for a first time.

Naturally, with a blindside, there’s going to be fallout. Janet, Jamal, Noura, and Karishma were all left out of that particular vote, and all have a reason to be upset. One person usually takes point at times like these, and as you might expect, that person is Janet. What you might not expect is her reasoning. From what we saw, Jamal just threw a name out there he thought people could get behind, not being on any sort of moral crusade. It was for Janet, though. She talks with Tommy and Lauren about the why of it. The pair really don’t do a good job explaining themselves, when really all they need to do is say “The talk with production handled it, so we went with what we thought was best from a gameplay perspective.” In spite of their waffling answer, Janet seems satisfied, and goes to explain herself to Dan. Dan, for his part, seems perplexed at the whole thing. Odd, considering production supposedly talked to him about his behavior. Seeking consolation, Dan talks initially to Missy and Elizabeth, two of the people Janet implicated as having a problem with him, with Elaine and Aaron coming around as well. Dan says that he’s completely dumbfounded at these accusations, and you don’t know how hard I’m resisting making an impeachment joke right now. This leads to Dan confronting Janet about this, who pulls over Missy and Elizabeth to talk with Dan, where Elizabeth, despite being one of the few people to say she didn’t find Dan particularly objectionable, does admit to talking go Janet about it. It becomes clear to Janet that she was being fed something of a story, so our scene ends for now. Rest assured, though, the issue is not done with yet.

We get back to our now usual “Survivor” stuff, in a good, old-fashioned idol hunt by a few of our members. Aaron and Missy agree to go looking for an idol, and so get up to try and avoid the rush. Unfortunately, they pass by an already-awake Janet on their way, and their lame lie of “going for a walk” does not fool her. She tails them, and when that doesn’t work, she just hits on her own. Janet is justly rewarded for her efforts. Good for her.

Janet’s not the only one finding goodies, though. After hearing Karishma complain about how Tommy won’t talk to her (literally the ONLY THING resembling fallout from their move that either he or Lauren gets. Seriously, how are they getting away so unscathed?), we get a comedic moment of a piece of paper dangling in between them without them noticing. Karishma finally spots the paper, only for Jamal to be closer and grab it. He’ll soon wish he hadn’t, though. The show may be handing out advantages like candy on Halloween, but even they’re not that blatant. Jamal’s “advantage”, such as it is, is to go to Island of the Idols, mercifully absent from the merge so far. Even Rob and Sandra’s reactions at Tribal Council are kept to a minimum. Jamal swears to come back with an advantage, only to be told that the thing that looked so much like schmuck bait was indeed schmuck bait. For being so foolish as to grab a possible advantage dangling right in front of him, Jamal has lost his vote at the next Tribal Council. Still, Rob and Sandra offer him a chance to screw over someone else as well. They give him a blank piece of paper and pencil, telling him he can make any fake advantage he wants with it. Sure, a blank piece of paper. That you write a fake advantage on. That will DEFINITELY fool people! I mean, it’s not like there’s a very specific style of writing on advantage notes that would be nearly impossible to forge! Clearly, people will fall for this.

Coming back, Jamal tries to pass it off as a legacy advantage, which he gives to Dean to put a target on the latter’s back. Jamal’s penmanship is nice, but it’s clearly a fake. People entertain the idea it might be real, and keep an eye on Dean, but when even Dan is saying he doesn’t buy it, you’re in trouble.

Our second immunity challenge is a reused concept, but more distinctive than the first. Contestants hold a rope as they’re slowly lowered closer horizontally to the water. Last man and woman standing win immunity. A bit overdone, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen this particular challenge, and any opportunity to have Jeff Probst play the role of torturer is always glorious. I’m less of a fan of the “split gender immunity” thing. I’m ok with it for the first immunity challenge, particularly if you’ve got a large number of people at the merge. But now it just feels cheap and arbitrary. If you’re not going to do it during the first challenge, don’t do it at all.

Our outcome this time is just as uneventful as the first. Missy and Aaron win immunity, though I must say I’m surprised ANYONE fell out before Dan. Dude’s kind of top-heavy. Still, if you though our challenge did nothing, our strategizing does even less. Not even TRYING to pretend the majority is going to break, we instead get mystery in the form of who the target will be. They plan to split votes between Jamal and Karishma, the former due to possibly having an advantage from Island of the Idols, and the latter due to… well, basically for voting the wrong way, and not being Janet or Noura (the latter of whom seems to have been absorbed into the new majority). Kind of random, since I’d say Janet’s the biggest threat, due to being well-liked and uncompromising, but if you must choose between those two, there’s no contest. Jamal is a better strategist, and more likely to pull something crazy. Janet would be the best choice, but if it can’t be her, better Jamal than anyone else.

You would think that the limited amount of strategizing would lead to a long Tribal Council, but this is not so. Not to say that nothing happens, but in terms of time spent, it takes up less time than the first. Our topic of discussion also seems misplaced, as it’s NOW that Dan is put through the wringer for his handsiness. Janet feels the need to justify herself, explains her actions, and gets some feedback from the other women. And it could have been dropped there, but Aaron just has to go put his foot in his mouth, arrogantly saying that he doesn’t believe it because he hadn’t heard it. Jamal rightly points out that Aaron is not entitled to know anything until someone is ready to tell it, nor does it make it any less true. This leads to Dan defending himself, Janet breaking down, and everyone building Janet back up. A good honest discussion we needed to hear, and very emotionally impactful on multiple fronts. Too bad Probst just has to keep talking about how important this conversation is! Look, I largely thing production handled the whole situation well and with much dignity for all involved, but Probst trying to force-feed us the social commentary is really pushing the limits of my patience. I’ll give him credit for at least saying he’s not going to let Dan off the hook just because the man’s getting emotional, but again, Probst, the scene speaks for itself. Sometimes your narration is just too much.

Unsurprisingly, Jamal goes home, though there is some tension. Janet plays her idol. I can’t blame her, since she knows she’s on the outs, and she did receive votes, but in the end, they’re just throwaways. Jamal and Karishma are the main targets, and Jamal is smartly sent home. I will miss the guy, though. For every forced Probst talking point about social commentary, Jamal made it feel natural and comfortable, talking about uncomfortable subjects in a way anyone can understand. Dude might not have been the best player of “Survivor”, but he was and presumably still is a decent and fun human being. For this, I respect him.

Apologies if this blog was less detailed than usual. Not being able to write right after the episode does hamper me a bit in this area. One area where it helps, though, is in giving me time for another…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Yes, it’s time once again to bring out the best and worst “Survivor” has to offer. I don’t often talk about episodes titles as a whole, but they really dropped the ball on this one. As you’ll soon see, it’s bland and generic, despite them having a multitude of good quotes to choose from (I personally would have gone with dan’s cringey “Dope-Ass Merge” comment for hilarity alone). But they didn’t. So, let’s first look at the best titles to herald a merge, and then see where it all went wrong.

TOP 5

5. “I’m not as Dumb as I Look”-Hailing from “Survivor China”, this one may require a little context to understand why it’s so good. On the surface, it’s a pretty generic episode title. Then you remember that this is being said in reference to the infamous, yet hilarious, first fake idol play in the history of “Survivor”. The title may be a bit on the generic side, but anything that reminds one of that deserves a mention on this list.

4. “The Hidden Immunity Idol”-This may raise a few eyebrows to newer fans of the show. After all, and episode talking about hidden immunity idols. Don’t you mean EVERY SINGLE EPISODE OF THE SHOW? Ah, but this title hails from the merge of “Survivor Guatemala”, the first season to introduce this particular twist. Not only would this be a topic of discussion for several episodes to come, thereby making it relevant as a title, but also heralded mystery and excitement. After all, we were seeing this for the first time. We didn’t know what was coming. Thus, by adding excitement and intrigue to an already exciting time in the game, this title accomplishes its most important job.

3. “Girls Gone Wilder”-Look, I’m a sucker for a good pop-cultural reference, and this one works out well. Not only appropriate to the gender theme of “Survivor The Amazon”, it also references Jenna and Heidi’s infamous stripping for chocolate and peanut butter. On a more PC level, it could also refer to the girls going “wild” with power, since not only do they pretty well dominate the game from here on out, but exert their influence on this episode in particular, by insisting Roger go. Maybe a bit sexist in this day and age, but at the time, quite a fitting title.

2. “There’s a New Sheriff in Town”-I like this one for how brazen and yet not brazen it is. This, as you might guess, hails from “Survivor Game Changers”. You know, the season won by officer Sarah Lacina, aka Sheriff Lacina? Obvious in hindsight, but still makes for a decent title on its own. That’s the kind of subtlety I like.

1. “An Emerging Plan”-Out of all the titles on this list, I’d say this is the most subtle. At first seeming like a fairly generic episode title, you glanced over it without much thought. Then you think about it and realize: “An eMERGEing plan”. See, show, if you’re going to work the word “merge” into your merge episode title, do it like this: with a good dose of pun and subterfuge. Not bad for “Survivor Exile Island”.

Honorable Mention: “I’m the Kingpin”-Yet another fairly generic title for a merge, and one that unfortunately has less to justify it. All that puts it on this list is the possible Marvel reference. What can I say? I like Daredevil. Props for playing to your audience, “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”.

BOTTOM 5

5. “Double-Agent”-I may not have as much to say about the titles on this half of the list, mostly because the worst a title can do is be generic, and there’s only so many ways I can say that. “Double-Agent” from “Survivor South Pacific” is no exception to this rule, and so ends up on the list, though I keep it low because, unlike some titles we’ll get to, it’s at least appropriate. After all, this is there episode where Cochran fully jumps ship. It may be overdone, but you can’t say it doesn’t fit.

4. “Play to Win”-What puts the generic merge title from “Survivor Cambodia” on this list is the fact that it’s a lie. Look, the strategic gameplay this season was overall top-notch. It’s my second favorite season for a reason. But the fact remains that this episode was not decided by “Play to Win”, but rather by old grudges coming to light for an easy boot at a large merge. Not saying it’s a good or bad way to play, but call a spade a spade.

3. “Blindside Time”-I really have nothing else to say to this one. It’s generic, more so than the previous two, and what we’ve come to expect at a merge. And for how good the post-merge of “Survivor Caramoan” was, that’s disappointing.

2. “This Game Respects Big Moves”-Yet another thing to blame “Survivor Redemption Island” for: The start of the “BIG MOVEZ!” era. Yes, not only do we have a title that could fit pretty much anywhere, we also have one actively encouraging impulsive and erratic gameplay that stifles individual creativity for the sake of entertainment. Joy. What could possibly be worse than this?

1. “We Made it to the Merge!”-Yes, our most recent season tops the list, though really, it’s a placeholder for all the generic titles just announcing that it’s the merge. We KNOW from the preview that it’s coming. Why not hype us up with what’s special about this one? But no, we just get genericness in a sea of good quotes. It’s not like you didn’t have things to work with this season, CBS. Is a little quality too much to ask?

Honorable Mention-“The Merger”-This one really falls under the number one slot, but I single out for two reasons, one good and one bad. On the good side, this title comes from “Survivor Borneo”, where yeah, they had a reason to be generic. Like what I talked about with “Survivor Guatemala”, even though now it seems old hat, this was a new and exciting development for first-time viewers, making the title not as bad as at first glance. On the bad side, though, this title perpetuates the myth of the “merge” being a “merger”. It is not. Stop calling it that. For this sin, this title must be singled out.

This episode as a whole is unique, if only in the insight it gives us into production. That makes it hard to review, and it does have some annoyances. Parts of the game seemed to go too fast, and I still can’t fathom how we’re supposed to side with Tommy and Lauren when they’re making such bad moves. That said, it was fairly exciting, set up stuff for later, and handled a difficult situation maturely, which is always nice to see. Hope things stay on track, or even improve, in the next episode!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 7: Rubbing People the Wrong Way

Forgive me for starting my blog philosophizing about what it takes to win “Survivor”, but as this season, nor the last, had a themed tribe split, I haven’t had a chance to espouse my pet philosophy yet. The person best equipped to win “Survivor” is the person with the best balance. Not in terms of physical balance (though the case of Terry Deitz on “Survivor Exile Island” does make a strong argument for it), but in terms of balance in gameplay style. For instance, on a season like “Survivor David vs. Goliath”, the person who balances the best qualities of a “David” and a “Goliath” within themselves is most likely to win. Now, while this philosophy comes up most prominently on seasons with “vs” themes, it really applies everywhere. Such is the case tonight, where we have a bit of a complexity overload possibly leading to a bad move. Ah, but now I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s begin at the beginning.

In case you had forgotten about it, Elaine reminds us about her blocking Jason’s vote, and then voting him out last episode. Incidentally, dick move there. I can’t fault the using of the advantage, but still, to vote someone out and not even giving them the chance to vote? Dick move.

Old Vokai have now been blindsided, and feel real fear for the first time in the game. Lauren does not take it well. Let me preface what I’m about to say by saying that Lauren has been playing a solid game thus far, and I will have some praise for her later tonight. But MAN does Lauren not take this well. She gets incredibly emotional, particularly with Missy, whom she seems to have something of a bond with. Now, does Lauren have a right to her feelings? Absolutely. But, as I’ve said before and will say again, you can’t let them out like this, especially in the immediate aftermath of a blindside. best to say “good job”, maybe try and get a bit of information, and move on. Any sort of emotional reaction makes you seem harder to work with, and therefore a target. Luckily for Lauren, Missy’s “Girls Alliance” switch is flipped to “On” this week, and so Missy wants to keep her around to use her as an “in” with the old Vokai. Good strategy on her part, though I wish we got a consistent narrative for what that strategy IS. One week she’s all in with the women, the next she’s saying it was never a thing, the week after, back to the women. I’m not saying don’t be flexible, I’m saying have a narrative throughline, rather than this choppiness.

Lairo may not have the interpersonal turmoil that Vokai currently has, but thing’s aren’t so easy for them either. As happens every so often on “Survivor”, the elements rear their ugly heads, and a torrential downpour hammers the tribe. Karishma complains about the shelter getting them wet, but the more immediate concern is fire, the lack thereof. Jamal volunteers himself to restart it, and from what we see, tries for a while with little success. Jack suggests getting Kellee to do it, since she’s good at fire. Kellee reluctantly agrees, only for Jamal to start telling her how to do it. Kellee diplomatically asks if Jamal wants to keep doing it, hands him back the materials and storms off. She tells us in confessional that Jamal can come off as condescending sometimes, such as in the previous scene. Jack’s diplomacy eventually coaxes her back into the role, and she does make fire, but there’s tension now. Jamal’s annoyance makes for an interesting contrast with Noura’s annoyance. Both are rubbing their tribes the wrong way, but for very different reasons. Noura is a blatant annoyance: Talking too loud, laughing too much, wearing her heart on her sleeve, etc. That said, you always know where you stand with her. In contrast, Jamal is polite and has more social graces, but can grate on you in little ways. Plus, he’s outside the alliance and sneaky. Not that much will come of it tonight, but it’s an interesting contrast.

We sadly don’t have much time to dwell on it, as a boat comes, bidding Janet go to the Island of the Idols. Janet, as mentioned the last time, is somewhat reluctant to go, since it puts a target on her back. This time she has no escape route, though, and so contents herself with putting on an over-the-top “upset” face. I say this because I don’t think someone like Janet has been upset in 20 years.

After a literal jaw-dropping reveal of Boston Rob and Sandra, we get down to brass tacks. Boston Rob talks about “Survivor” being a game of calculated risks, and then my tv spontaneously explodes. Must have been the “Survivor Edge of Extinction” failsafe I put on there after last season. No more of that on my screen, thank you.

Switching to steaming the show on my computer, I must admit this “calculated risks” schpiel seems like a reused one. Isn’t that basically what ALL contests, and Vince’s in particular, have been up to this point? That said, it IS a good lesson for Janet, who earlier had turned down Noura’s idea of a women’s alliance. While I can’t say for certain whether or not the women’s alliance is a good strategy for Janet, I can say her reaction to it is wrong. You ALWAYS show at least a bit of interest in a deal. Keep your options open for down the road. Not that Janet burned her bridge with Noura, but it still seems like a missed opportunity for her.

Back to the game of chance, Boston Rob lays out the stakes. Win and you get what basically amounts to a hidden immunity idol that also prevents you from voting. You go back to camp before the vote. Can’t be voted for, can’t cast a vote yourself. Not the most original twist, but it’s something. As usual, if you lose, you lose your next vote. Janet takes her time to consider, which she should definitely do, though for me this is one of the more clear-cut decisions. There’s very little risk if Janet plays. She’s in a solid majority on a tribe likely to go to Tribal Council next, which doesn’t need her vote to succeed, and if she wins, she basically gets a hidden immunity idol good through the final seven. Not being able to vote kind of sucks, but you know what sucks more? Being voted out, that’s what! Janet, however, is a cautious player, and chooses not to take the risk, citing too much flak if she makes herself immune. Gotta admit, I’m not seeing the logic here, Janet. If you use an advantage, that generally makes you LESS of a target. You’ve effectively revealed your hand, and people won’t be suspicious of what you have. If she’s talking about suspicion of her having something in the first place, well, that just makes even LESS sense, since that’s going to happen to you REGARDLESS just by coming back from “Island of the Idols”. Still, props for giving us something different, and she earns the praise of Sandra, which isn’t nothing.

Kellee is concerned that Janet won’t toe the party line on “Island of the Idols” when she returns, but luckily for her, Janet keeps to the story, and we reaffirm that the tribe as a whole wants Dean gone, spinning Noura as a story to him, and Kellee and Noura having chips on their shoulders about Jamal.

Strategy is not unknown to Vokai, either. It seems Kellee is not the only one a bit creeped out by Dan, as Lauren, Tommy, Missy, and Elizabeth discuss the next day. Evidently Dan needs to take his cue from Emperor Kuzco, and “No Touchee”. Boy, there’s a phrase I never thought I’d say.

With no obvious crack in the old Lairo on their tribe, the old Vokai members, or at least Tommy and Lauren, go for plan B: Make sure it’s not them. I would say “me” but Lauren makes it clear that she and Tommy are a pair. If someone has to go, it should be Dan. After all, he was rubbing people the wrong way (both figuratively and literally in this case), so he’ll be less missed from the old Vokai. Tommy even spins a decent lie he acts out very well, telling most of the old Lairo that Dan talked about voting out Aaron. A decent lie, but if Missy is inconsistent in terms of her overall strategy, she’s very consistent in sniffing out BS. She recognizes the bond that Tommy and Lauren have, correctly conclude that they’re lying, and strategize to get one of the two of them out. She targets Tommy in particular, since she and Lauren have something of a bond despite the blindside (they still seem to pair up, though Lauren admitted that it was going to be hard to trust Missy going forward), and believes that getting rid of Tommy will make Lauren side with her. Given the information she has, I can’t blame her. However, I think Missy underestimates the bond Lauren has with people like Janet and Kellee. It’s understandable, since Missy’s never seen them interact, but I think voting out Tommy would only drive a wedge between Lauren and herself, leading to a Natalie Anderson (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) situation where Lauren makes it her mission to get revenge for her fallen ally.

On to the challenge which is for… Immunity! Ok, I can understand needing to cut reward challenges for time, but you gave us them in the last two episodes, and now we expect them. Be consistent is all I’m saying! They at least give us a pretty cool challenge for it. Three tribe members toss coconuts into a net, which will knock over a set of puzzle pieces. The remaining four then assembles these into a “Survivor” logo, winning immunity. Not a bad set of elements overall, even if they are reused. Coconut tosses are always fun, and what the puzzle lacks in complexity, it makes up for in scale. Plus, we get Tommy and Jack yelling a lot. Always good for a laugh.

After last episode (both in terms of Lairo actually winning and losing Jason) contests are now going to be much more even overall, and the editing gives us very little. We got viable targets on both tribes pre-challenge. Vokai only got one (Tommy), while Lairo had multiple (Dean, Noura, Jamal), making for good mystery. Funnily enough, we had a situation where both tribes had good reason to try and throw the challenge. We didn’t see it, but it was still a funny concept. I actually thought Missy and Elizabeth, two of the throwers for Vokai, WERE trying to throw the challenge, since their shots went SO wide for athletic people, but since they were drilling shots later, I can only assume they just needed some practice to get in the groove. Vokai gets a lead from Tommy’s shooting, and although they narrowly lose it on the puzzle, they still pull out a narrow victory. Kellee angsts about the use of her idol, as tonight is the last night she can play it, which I’m sure in NO WAY will come into play tonight!

Dean is reaffirmed as the primary target for the night, with Jamal and Jack spinning him a good story about voting for Noura, due to her being, well, Noura. Even Detective Dean can’t see through their poker faces. Kellee, meanwhile, is still down and out about not being able to use her idol, evidently forgetting about the Chrissy Hoffbeck (“Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”) school of “Dead Idol as Leverage/Bluff”. Then, though, she has an epiphany! A complicated epiphany! The Rube Goldberg Machine of epiphanies! She wants to keep Dean around, since she has a connection she can use. Fair enough. She wants her idol not to go to waste. Still fair, though again, an idol CAN be of use even if you don’t play it. She wants to give Dean her idol so he can save himself, and here’s where things start to get finicky. I agree with her argument that it’s best for her game if Jack or Jamal go. Both worked against her interest in the past, and could be dangerous come a merge. Plus, since Dean has nowhere to go, he’s not much of a threat. But I fail to see how giving Dean your idol is necessary. True, it ensure Dean will be forever loyal to you (as much as one can on “Survivor”), but just letting him in on a plan to not vote him out will do that! It’s not like the guy has anywhere else to go! All his allies are gone! Now what, you may ask, is the harm of letting Dean play the idol? After all, it gets to the same result in the end. The trouble, though, it that it increases risk for Kellee (as she herself mentions, Dean could use this against her), but she either has to publicly play her idol for Dean, or let him steal a moment that should be for her. She doesn’t know the jury will start tonight (it will), but if she’s suspecting a merge, like she tells us, then most people here will be on the jury, and will see this great move of her. Unless, of course, it just looks like Dean found the idol on his own, in which case he gets all the credit for saving himself. To add onto the complexity pile, Kellee wants to let Noura in on the plan, and have her vote for either Jack or Jamal. Now we’re back in good idea territory, but again, we didn’t necessarily need to go here. True, Jack and Jamal will never go along with the plan, and Janet’s made it pretty clear she’s not moving, but the fact remains that we’re never shown why Kellee can’t keep her idol (or play it on herself, just to be safe), and go to Karishma, Dean, and Noura, and rally them to vote out Jack or Jamal 4-3. You could argue that this move would piss off the remaining two left out, but either Jack or Jamal would be pissed anyway, and all you have to do is let Janet know, and she’ll be at least slightly less miffed. Kellee doesn’t know that Jamal has an idol, so she can’t know that this is the risk.

Point being, I think Kellee got a little too caught up in her idea, and made it overly complex. Is it the worst thing in the world? No, but I think it got a little too cute, and ran more risk than she needed, as outlined above. Not the end of the world for her tonight, but could be a problem long term. Simple plans are simply foiled, but plans that are too complex lead to a lot of unnecessary risk. Like most things on “Survivor”, you need to balance simplicity and complexity in your plans. Complex enough to not be easily foiled, but simple enough to avoid unnecessary risk.

Since we see Kellee telling Dean about her idol, it’s pretty clear that either Jamal or Jack is going home. Yes, it kills the mystery a bit, but this is another good example of a “journey” episode, rather than a “destination” episode. We don’t need mystery if there’s a fun story getting there, and damn if this isn’t fun. Plus the mystery of who was going to Tribal Council, plus the mystery between Jack and Jamal keeps that element going. As to who she should go with, Kellee lines out her choices better than I could. Jack is a threat come the merge, but Jamal is less likely to work with her. Both compelling arguments, but for me, Jamal is the correct choice here. Leaving aside his idol (as Kellee can’t possibly know about it), while Jack is a threat come the merge, you don’t know for certain that the merge is coming, and Jack’s a bigger target than you if it is. Plus, Jack’s shown that he takes betrayal WAY better than Jamal. You want as many options as possible, and Jack could still be willing to work with you, even if you do betray him. Betray Jamal, however, and that bridge is burned pretty much for good.

Even Tribal Council has a bit of complexity addiction tonight. Dean, of course, plays up his moroseness, but Noura decides she needs to add on to it. She starts off well, talking about long term trust versus short term trust, indicating that not knowing Dean for as long makes him a target by gesturing in his direction. She also gestures towards Jamal as someone she doesn’t get along with, but Jamal takes it in stride. Then, however, she has to get complex with it. She goes on some extended metaphor about family, talking about working with and against the jerks in the family, and now Jamal is suspicious. He requests that Probst question Noura on trying to target him, which Probst obliges, hilariously mimicking Jamal’s gestures as he does so. Jamal then invokes the dreaded “Women’s Alliance”, getting Kellee into the action, who calls the accusation “arbitrary” and “sexist”. She does have a point when she says it’s brought up as a threat more often than it’s actually a problem, but in Jamal’s defense, we’re still reeling from “Survivor Micronesia”. This segways into a nice, honest discussion about how the perception of women in society is changing, and how that impacts the game. It’s a thoughtful and engaging discussion, ruined by Probst talking about how “relevant” it makes “Survivor”. Look, Probst, I love you, but this is a step too far. DOING something makes it relevant. TALKING about how relevant it is makes it seem like pandering, and less relevant pandering at that. We didn’t need you to tell us it was relevant. We already knew. Remember that first episode, with me talking about how “Less is More”? Yeah, that’s something that’s still relevant as well.

We sadly don’t get the epic music to plays us out of Tribal Council, but we do get the expected Dean idol play. This has Jamal spooked, and so he plays his idol. Props to him for paying attention, but less props for playing it on Noura. With all that talk of people being out to get you, seems to me the smart thing would have been to play it on himself. I’d be wrong, however, as Jack is targeted for being a threat. Not the move I expected, and not the one I think is the smartest. That said, while losing any of the targets tonight would have been a hard blow, I do think Jack is at least the least interesting of the three. Jamal is a complex character who brings a lot of drama, and Dean at least has the “Detective Dean” persona to lean back on. Jack, while a nice guy and intelligent, brought little to the table. He’s sort of a less athletic Joe Anglim (“Survivor Worlds Apart”). A nice, inoffensive guy who brings little else to the table.

After a few rocky episodes, this show is back in gear! This episode not only built on past storylines, but set the stage for new ones as well, what with the Missy/Lauren and Dean/Kellee bonds. Plus, some people noticed that Dean played his idol tonight rather than the previous Tribal Council. Will this overly complex plan bite Kellee in the butt? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out in the merge next week!

I wonder if CBS will compensate me for a new tv…

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 6: Your Account Has Been Blocked

All right, after another long, hard day at work, it’s finally time to get down to some “Survivor”. No more distractions. No more interruptions. No more godforsaken alarm clocks that need to be set for an earlier time than any human should reasonably be expected to be awake at. Time to just sit back, relax, and one of the contestants is going to come crashing through my wall right now, aren’t they?

CRASH!

MATT: I hate being right.

ELAINE: Sorry Mr. Matt, but your plans have been canceled. I’m blocking this blog.

MATT: Elaine, what are you talking about?

ELAINE: The show was so happy with how good a character I am, they gave me this “Block a Blog” advantage. I can choose one “Survivor” blog to not happen in a week, and I’m choosing you.

MATT: I’m flattered, but this seems a bit odd. Why my blog?

ELAINE: I dunno. I’ve just got a bad feeling you’re going to badmouth me.

MATT: Quite the contrary. I was going to give you a fair shake in all we see tonight, and even some praise for some of your moves.

ELAINE: Oh. Well, I’m still using this. I’m not like those other players who hold onto their advantages as long as possible.

MATT: Speaking of which, can I see that advantage for a moment? (examines advantage). Ah, Elaine, I see you missed the fine print.

ELAINE: What’s that?

MATT: “This advantage blocks a blog from happening about one particular episode.”

ELAINE: That’s what I’m doing.

MATT: Except that this blog will start with a “Matt’s Mess-Up” We’re talking about two episodes. Your advantage is null and void.

ELAINE: …Nuts.

MATT: Hey, it’s all right. I admire your spunk. Any chance you could patch that hole in my wall before you go?

ELAINE: I suppose that’s fair.

Well, while Elaine patches my wall, let us get to the promised…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Brief one this time, but I was so caught up in the saga of “Detective Dean”, that I actually missed the one-liners of his proverbial Moriarty, Missy. Not being an idiot, Missy could tell that Dean was upset about the Chelsea vote from the previous episode. However, Missy felt that Dean should be GRATEFUL. After all, he wasn’t the one to go some last episode. Sure Missy. One should NEVER be pissed that one of their close allies went home and they were left in the dark. That portends NOTHING about their fate.

Speaking of Dean, we start off this episode much like the last one: Dean staring morosely out to sea, pondering being left out of the vote again. Sadly, there is no “Detective Dean” this time around. That’s because the craziness that is Noura pervades all. Noura, it seems, has not forgotten that Jack and Jamal wanted to work with Molly early on to target her. As such, she thinks that getting rid of one of those two is her ideal solution. Actually a fair bit of logic here. Nothing Noura has said is incorrect. I just have one, tiny question, Noura: WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TELLING THIS TO DEAN! By your own admission, you’re planning to flip the women, meaning yourself, Karishma, Kellee and Janet. Guess what? THAT’S A MAJORITY! A majority that keeps the information largely to itself, and doesn’t need to involve someone on the bottom with nothing to lose. Someone who could bring this information back to your other allies and put you in the hot seat.

Look at that, Dean’s telling Jamal about what Noura just plotted, and Jamal has now moved Noura’s target up a great deal. Who could have seen that coming?

Morning at Vokai sees more bonding, as now Tommy and Elaine are bonding. Specifically, they’re bonding over having a chuckle at Elizabeth, who has a very loud reaction to waking up with a tarantula near her face. I have to say, though, I’m with Elizabeth on this one. Even as someone who doesn’t mind tarantulas as much as others, I would be pretty freaked to wake up with one right by my face if I wasn’t expecting it.

Talk segues to strategy, as Elaine reaffirms the Lairo/Vokai 4-4 split on this tribe, and talks about how everyone’s willing to go to rocks on both sides. With a setup like this, our next confessional can only be about one side not being willing to go to rocks. Sure enough, we get first Elizabeth, then Missy and Aaron, confirming that they won’t go to rocks, Aaron even going so far as to swear loyalty to Jason at the water well. Pretty extreme, but ok. This isn’t a good look for Elaine, and implies that she’s on the chopping block next. Still funny, though, and Elaine will get her revenge later tonight.

Not during the reward challenge, though. She’s sitting that out. She will go to Island of the Idols (more on that later), while everyone else runs an obstacle course. They will carry one member on a sled over some tracks and have them untie keys, then use a slingshot at the end to knock over targets. Winner gets the traditional “Survivor” sacrifices: Chickens and a Rooster. Overall a pretty average challenge with not much to talk about, save for one caveat: the person carried on the sled must also be the slingshot shooter. This, for me, is a nice little strategic wrinkle. You want your shooter to be someone strong, but at the same time, those people tend to be heavier, so you maybe don’t want your biggest gun to be your shooter in this case. Not much comes of this, as both tribes make logical choices, but it was a good dilemma I wouldn’t mind seeing return. Also, it amuses me that Lauren (who never met Tom) has a larger reaction to his exit than Missy.

This challenge is pretty even overall, but since it’s a challenge of any sort, Vokai has the edge. Sure enough they win, and we’ll later discover that they reach a new low of chicken knowledge: They can’t even identify which one’s the rooster.

For less embarrassment, let’s check in with Elaine. Naturally, with her Red Sox hat, she bonds with… Sandra. Ok, ok, so Rob does comment on the hat, but it still felt weird that she went to Sandra first. Not bad, mind you, just weird. Cutting right to the chase, Rob uncorks a sand timer, and tells Elaine that she has until the sand runs out to accept or reject an offer he’s going to make her. Elaine, not exactly the most subtle of players, immediately accepts, whatever it is. Rob once again gives her hell in confessional for not waiting, and again, I must take umbrage. It’d be one thing if you laid out the offer and THEN started the timer, but you’ve put her under a time limit, and expect her to slowly think things through? Hypocritical much?

Fortunately for Elaine, the offer turns out to be a good one. Her “challenge” such as it is is to get a “Block a vote” advantage hidden under a table during the next immunity challenge. Succeed, you get said advantage. Lose, and you lose your vote at the next Tribal Council. High risk high reward, but since Elaine thinks the alternative is drawing rocks, it’s one worth taking. She has the chance to flip power at the next vote (since really, with this sort of advantage, I can’t think of a better time to use it), and if she loses, well, it’s at least less random than a rock draw. Besides, this “test” is easy. We’ve had a number of idols hidden at challenges at this point, and no one’s yet managed to mess up getting one. Challenges are so chaotic, if anything they’re EASIER to get than idols at camp. Elaine leaves with her mission, and Sandra expressed a fondness for Elaine. Because you just knew she would.

People tend to give reality tv in general, and “Survivor” in particular, a lot of shit. It’s understandable. The genre is controversial, and when you’ve got a show that’s been on almost 20 years, you’re going to get some detractors. In the case of the “Appealing to the lowest common denominator” charge, however, I think “Survivor” gets a bad rep. When your show centers around interpersonal conflicts, it’s easy to let your players go more over-the-top and more personal for the sake of bigger and harsher arguments. “Survivor”, however, zags where it could zig in this department. Take our confrontation between Jack and Jamal. Jack casually refers to Jamal’s buff as a “durag” (a word I’ve apparently been misspelling all my life, if the subtitles are to be believed). Jamal is naturally a bit offended by this, since it can have “thug” connotations, and was done so casually. It would be EASY to play up this argument for cheap drama. Let Jack get accused of being consciously racist. Play up the feud as much as possible. Instead, what we get is two grown adults resolving it like adults. Jack sincerely apologizes and tries to learn from the experience. Jamal accepts the apology and does his best to share the world he lives in with Jack. It’s touching to see, and it’s why I think “Survivor” doesn’t get enough credit. Yeah, it throws too many twists at the wall at once, and yeah, it can be a bit repetitive at times, but it has a level of dignity it won’t sink below, even for the sake of views, and for this, it deserves respect.

Remember how everyone that we’ve seen come back from Island of the Idols has lied about what’s there so far? Yeah, that’s out the window, at least for Elaine and Elizabeth. Feeling she needs a confederate to help her get her advantage, Elaine tells Elizabeth about all that went down. I can’t be too hard on this move. I’ve complained enough already about how the people coming back should at least tell the partial truth about what happened while they were gone, and Elizabeth is a logical choice, having been to Island of the Idols before and not being as in favor of flipping as the likes of Missy and Aaron. Unsurprisingly, Elizabeth agrees to help Elaine with the challenge.

Our challenge itself is very similar to our reward challenge of the day, at least in terms of my enjoyment. Tribes dig under a cage, then lift that cage over tables, untying balls as they go. Once they reach the end of the course, still in the cage, tribes must put those balls into five baskets, with the first tribe to five winning immunity. Again, a pretty standard challenge, but one I can get behind at least one element of. In this case, lifting the cage made for an excellent visual that elevated the challenge beyond your standard obstacle course. It reminds me of the “Move a Village” challenge from “Survivor Africa”, in a good way.

Given that this challenge is, well, a challenge, Lairo is likely to lose, and the edit does them no favors. No clear targets, apart from Elaine, have emerged on Vokai, while Lairo has several. They’re pretty much goners at this point. Which is why it’s surprising that they win. Ok, show, I’m HAPPY you’re not being predictable, but at the same time, you’re now cramming all the interesting dynamics into the latter half of the episode, which just makes everything feel rushed. Hell, even Elaine’s advantage hunt isn’t that exciting. Apart from one second where it looks like it might fall out of her pants after she thought she had it (which, much as I like Elaine, would have been hilarious), it’s your pretty standard grab. We don’t even see Elizabeth run interference. Ho, hum.

Remember that whole “Flipping on old Lairo” thing? Well, scratch that plan. Look, I’ll be giving various players a lot of shit tonight, but credit where it’s due: the old Lairo players realize a good thing when they see one. Unless they have what is these days an uncommonly late merge, they’re going to be down in numbers come the merge. They could easily just abandon ship, and throw themselves on the mercies of old Vokai. But, when presented with an opportunity to have power in the game, they don’t do the stupid thing, and instead seize on it. You might think it patronizing that I’m praising such basic competence in gameplay, but I’m being serious. I sat through the non-Kim Spradlin members of “Survivor One World”. I know how bad this gets. Also, props to Elizabeth for once again letting Elaine be the fall person, in case Aaron and Missy weren’t receptive to her advantage.

The one exception to this love-fest is Aaron, who says he has control over who goes tonight. Despite what I just said, if there’s one person from old Lairo for whom it MIGHT be beneficial to flip, it’s Aaron. For all that he and Missy are tight, he was on the wrong side of at least one Lairo vote, and so is perfectly within his rights to not trust them. Plus, if he’s going for a “shields” strategy like he indicated, no one left on the old Lairo really shields him, whereas several old Vokai have that temperament. There’s a worthy amount of temptation there for Aaron. That said, the smart move for him is to let Elaine use her advantage and vote with his original tribe. Aaron has no reason to trust old Vokai apart from them having done nothing to him. That’s not much, and when compared against the amount of time spent with his old tribemates, there’s no contest. Yes, he shouldn’t trust them all the way to the end, but like Natalie Anderson on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, he should wait for the proper moment to strike.

As to who old Lairo’s going to strike… Well, the show hasn’t bothered to do much foreshadowing of it, so they just foreshadow everybody. Elaine takes us through the reasons to vote for every member of old Vokai: Dan because he’s sneaky, Lauren because she’s weak, Tommy because he’s well-connected, and Jason because he’s smart. There’s not really a good way to rank these choices, but I’d say overall there’s two good and two bad choices for old Lairo to vote out. Tommy and Lauren are the people who Lairo should be most keen to get rid of. Both are well-connected and well-liked on their original tribe. Both are epicenters of power for the majority alliance. It’s only a question of whether you want to keep strength for the tribe challenges (Tommy) or a lack of a threat for individual challenges (Lauren). That depends on your ability to predict when a merge will happen, which is a skill I’ve never put much stock in. Just lucky guesswork, nothing more. In contrast to Tommy and Lauren, Jason and Dan divide the old Vokai, Jason for his initially being on the outs, and Dan for being, well, Dan. Better to keep those two around. All is possibility, though, as we head off to Tribal Council.

We have probably the most stand-out Tribal Council so far, but even that’s a bit overselling things. Talk is pretty standard “Split tribe” fare, despite Jason’s claims of uniqueness, until Tommy’s sales pitch about getting on the winning side. Not a bad job, but Elaine and Elizabeth recognize that it’s easy to say in a position of power. This talk, though, leads all of old Vokai to admit they’ll go to rocks, damn the risk. Elaine, however, chooses to throw things into chaos by revealing her vote block, saying she’s going to block Jason. A good time to reveal it. Lets people panic and potentially make mistakes without giving them much time to strategize against it We then get some great moments of Lauren in particular being emotional. Probst gives them flak, but I think it’s justified. Despite what later whispering may indicate, old Vokai pretty much knows they’re screwed. Of course they’d be a bit emotional. We lack the epic music, but we make up for it in good editing that doesn’t indicate which way Aaron will go…

That is until voting starts, when Jason tries to fist-bump Aaron, and he doesn’t return it. Cap it all off with Elaine votes coming up early, and you can tell, old Lairo smartly stuck together. Their target is indeed Jason, who to his credit, leaves with a lot of class. He expresses love for his tribemates, and understandably warns them against Aaron. I also enjoy that Lairo basically went for a double-bluff. They figured that in picking Jason to lose his vote, old Vokai would assume he would be too obvious a target, and play any potential idols on themselves. Thus, double-bluff. And, between Elaine and Jason, Elaine is a much more interesting character, so I’m happy he went in that regard. That said, I don’t think it was the right decision for the reasons outlined above. Plus, it puts Tommy, my personal favorite of the season, on the outs, which I’m not happy about.

It’s tough for me to get a handle on my feelings for the episode. On the one hand, it was definitely exciting. Good mystery, fun challenges, and even some heartwarming moments thrown in. But at the same time, it was very self-contained. Pretty much everything you needed to know about this episode only came up in this episode itself. In my opinion, “Survivor” works best when it’s serialized: events from previous episodes build on one another to create a coherent narrative. Now, being self-contained has its advantages. Anyone randomly tuning in will be able to understand pretty much everything. But we lose something of the grander narrative, which this season has so far been good about keeping. Plus, while there was mystery, a lot of it came from us just getting little that mattered in terms of the vote-off until the latter half of the episode. Granted, this was partly forced on the show, since it came from Elaine’s block-a-vote advantage, but even so, a little more foreshadowing would have been nice. Maybe have old Lairo talk a bit more about who they’d like to target in the previous episode or something. On that enigmatic note, see you next episode!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.