Well, three episodes in, and we return to form. It was a fun experiment while it lasted, and I’d hoped it would go on longer, but some things just beg for renewal. Thus, it is my displeasure to once again subject you, loyal readers, to that recurring segment:
MATT’S MESS-UP!
Yes, Even with an extra-long break, and a new season of “Survivor” to be excited about, it seems I can’t even go three episodes without missing points from the previous one that I had hoped to discuss. To be fair, though, most of them revolve around Xander, a character I don’t think about too much. Nothing against the guy; from what we’ve seen of him on the season he seems nice enough, but he plays into the “dude bro” archetype, which is just not one I find engaging. But in doing so, I failed to give him credit where credit is due, in that he made the “Butterflies are dead relatives saying ‘Hi’” phrase about as natural as it could be, segueing into it when Probst asked about the level of deprivation this season, playing the saying off as him being delirious from lack of water. Now all he has to do is wait for the other two tribes to say their phrase, then call back to his phrase as a “joke”, and then everything will be money for Xander. That is, assuming he survives that long. Not only is he on a tribe where the alliance is clearly against him, but he made the rookie mistake of reaching into stuff to look for idols/advantages without first poking in with a stick to avoid any snakes or other creatures that might bite him. His loss.
Oh, and the second place tribe at the immunity challenge also got some fishing gear. Good for them.
Moving onto our episode proper, we start with Yase at night, making you think there might be some drama or fallout from the last Tribal Council. If so, you CLEARLY don’t know what “Survivor” is all about. Don’t let the flashbacks and abundance of personal stories from the cast fool you: “Survivor” is all about the advantages, and NOTHING else! Sure, we get some brief pathos from Liana, who has buyer’s remorse about not voting out Xander last night (a move more understandable in light of the information that Evvie had maybe 10 minutes with Tiffany before Tribal Council. If Tiffany whipped herself up into paranoia all afternoon, any argument, no matter how logical, is not going to undo that, and then better to go with your alliance), but it’s brushed over pretty quickly. Why, rather than discuss what happened at Tribal last night, or what Xander plans to do, we need to see Tiffany finding yet ANOTHER “Beware Advantage”. But whereas the one Xander found was broken to the point of being a net loss against him, this one is barely any loss for Tiffany. Her “risk” is that she has to sneak out of camp. Ok, correct me if I’m wrong, but has this EVER caused problems for anyone? This has been a thing since “Survivor Cambodia”, and not ONCE has a person been caught or got in trouble for doing so. It’s almost like half-asleep people aren’t paying attention to your every move, and if they DO happen to see you out, they probably just think “They’re using the bathroom” and turn over. While the filming at night is cool, it’s time for this twist to die. It adds almost nothing (the occasional funny scene, such as Tony giving Sarah camouflage makeup on “Winners at War” notwithstanding), and takes away time we could be spending on other stuff.
Really, the bigger problem is making sure no one sees you get the advantage, since it’s hidden in the camp firewood piles. Tiffany is seen, but by her alliance. No harm done to her. Heck, even if Xander HAD seen her take it, what was he going to do? He still has no vote.
Brad on Ua is in a much better position to find it. After JD quotes some “Survivor Cagayan” (First Trish’s “Do you think I’m stupid?”, then Woo’s “Ninja Stealth Mode” and “Sonic Speed” lines. The latter will be appropriate later, but to his credit, JD has a good Woo impression), we see that everyone on the tribe is joined with him and laughing with him. Save Brad, who is back working hard at camp, commenting “kids will be kids”. After several shots of him being near the advantage but missing it, he leads himself into finding it by talking about how “hard work pays off”. Brad is the most interesting person of the three to find this advantage, but we’ll come back to him in a bit.
In a bit of a twist, Luvu starts off NOT talking about their advantage, but instead some strategy dynamics. What’s this? Actually looking at the inner workings of the tribe? Unfathomable! No, Sydney is spilling the beans about Naseer to literally EVERYBODY on the tribe. She talks about how he woke her up to talk about getting out Danny, and then Deshawn. We see from some cleverly-edited flashbacks to the night before that while she’s exaggerating in terms of her not actually being asleep, she is essentially telling the truth. After Deshawn unsurprisingly informs us that Naseer is now top of his hit list, we see that Naseer is not blind to the goings-on of the tribe. He notes everyone talking without him, and gets the sense he may be on the outs. He tries to clear the air in front of the tribe, because being open in front of the tribe has worked so well for past contestants. We don’t get to see how it worked for Naseer, though, as Sydney spots her tribe’s Beware Advantage, and grabs it in the open, to ensure Naseer doesn’t get it. Reasonable move, but Sydney is the one person whose reaction to getting the advantage I don’t fully understand. Tiffany shares it with her alliance. Since they were nearby, it’s the right thing to do. Brad (for now) keeps it to himself, again, the right thing to do. But Sydney? She takes it in front of EVERYONE, yet, from what we see, confides in NO ONE. Look, obviously Sydney shouldn’t make the information entirely public, but maybe confide in someone like Deshawn, who she seems to be close with? That way she has someone in her corner should she be targeted for having a suspected advantage. But no, just go off on your own. That did a lot of good for Naseer, I’m sure it’ll be good for you, too!
Back at Ua, after JD gives an argument as to why EVERYONE could have an idol at this point, we see that Brad is on a roll, as we see in flashback that he also found the OTHER Beware Advantage, the one with an idol. And yes, he gets the dumbest saying of them all, the one about “Broccoli is just a bunch of small trees”. Frankly, Luvu has it easiest, as by process of elimination, they have to say “I’m as confused as a goat on AstroTurf”, the phrase that’s probably the easiest of the three to work into banter with Probst. Genie is there with him when he finds it, but this only tightens the bond between Brad and Genie (still waiting on the logic behind her stray Ricard vote in episode 1, by the way). It also gives Brad information, as reading the other code phrases, he recognizes that Xander has his idol, and Luvu hasn’t found their idol yet. However, this is all getting to be a bit much for Brad, and he feels he needs some help. As such, he shares his finds with Genie (after finding the second Beware Advantage at camp) and Shan. Wait, what? Ok, Genie I understand. She seems tightest with Brad, and already knows about the idol. Might as well go whole hog. But Shan? You have to know after that first Tribal Council that she was the swing vote. Why clue her in? Sure enough, Shan is concerned about the amount of power Brad is getting. Great play there, Brad! At least she can help you “Sneak out of camp.”
Oh, wait, scratch that, Brad doesn’t need anyone’s help! He just builds a body double out of some cloth and flippers! Dude, get over it. You’re walking down the beach, not escaping from Alcatraz. While this is a funny moment, on par with the Tony/Sarah camouflage thing mentioned earlier, I maintain that this whole thing is pointless, as evidenced by the fact that Sydney and Tiffany don’t get ANY shots of them sneaking out of camp, and we cut straight to the island.
At said island, we meet our dilemma for the episode, and credit where credit is due, my request for a change-up from the Prisoner’s Dilemma has been fulfilled. Basically, each person will individually choose whether they want a tarp or a vote steal. If all take the former, everyone gets a tarp. If all take the latter, everyone gets nothing, and loses their vote at the next Tribal Council. In the event of a split, however, those who choose the tarp get nothing, and those who choose the vote steal get what they asked for. This dilemma blows the previous one out of the water. This time, there’s actual RISK to both choices. Everyone wants the vote steal, but can’t all go for it. Someone can sacrifice in order to get it for the others, but then they get nothing. The best outcome for everyone is to go tarp, but per game theory, as soon as one person chooses tarp, it’s better for the others to choose the vote steal.
Naturally, such a complex situation requires close coordination, which our contestants will naturally take their time over, as well as build bonds with the other tribe… Or you could be paranoid about the “time crunch” and rush the decision, that works as well.
There’s some disagreement over whether Sydney or Tiffany will take the fall (Brad having made a good case for his needing the extra vote), with Tiffany saying she needs the advantage, while Sydney claims that the smaller numbers make it better for Tiffany to sacrifice. I’m siding with Tiffany here, not so much because I feel she needs the advantage, but because with smaller numbers, the vote is more valuable, and Tiffany has been on the chopping block due to challenge performance. Sydney, on the other hand, is in solid with the largest tribe left, and so should be one of the ones to risk, as she has less to lose if it doesn’t pay off. Brad, as expected, goes for the vote steal, and we see Sydney got cold feet and went for the tarp. We don’t see what Tiffany put… Until after commercial, when everyone goes to tree mail (which actually looks like a driftwood mailbox. Nice touch), and we see that only Brad put down the vote steal, and is thus the only one to get an advantage. Way to hold that tension for all of three minutes, show.
Our immunity challenge, sadly, is even more underwhelming than the last two. One at a time, tribe members cross a thin rope bridge, then go to shore to dig up sandbags, which they must then land on discs above them in a spiral. First two tribes win immunity and varying amounts of fruit. I’ll admit the spiral is cool, but this challenge just feels scaled down from the previous ones. Still another obstacle course, but not even an epic set piece to recommend it.
Yase is also playing for their flint back, and based on the edit so far, they might get it! Yes, for all my complaints, this episode does a really good job of balancing likelihood of tribes going to Tribal Council. We got at least lip service towards the dynamics on Ua and Luvu, and while Yase was pretty quiet, you could argue their strategizing from last episode carries over. Oh, and Brad calls out his phrase, where we learn that you evidently don’t need to get the phrase exactly, as while Brad says the “Broccoli is just small trees” bit, he misses the “I didn’t realize this until now” part. Xander, of course, should keep his mouth shut until someone from Luvu says their phrase, which is why Probst immediately goes to him, and all but forces him to say his phrase. Way to remain impartial there, Probst.
As I say, Yase has a chance to win this challenge from an editing perspective. In reality, they have to deal with Tiffany still being a challenge sink. Admittedly, she doesn’t do quite as poorly as she did on the balance beam last episode, but the other tribes have all but lapped Yase by the time we get to the digging portion. Still, Ua blows their lead both there and on the sandbag tossing, which both Tiffany and Xander show an affinity for. This leads to a tight race, helped by the show pulling the old trick of “Triumph” music only for someone to miss a throw. Luvu predictably wins in the end, but Yase pulls out a clutch second place, sending Ua to Tribal Council, despite Genie’s fantastic cheering from the sidelines.
Old habits die hard for Brad, as he once again goes for whoever the challenge sink was in the last challenge. This time it was JD, who failed miserably on the sandbag toss. Sinking JD’s ship further, he goes off to get his extra vote, only to leave it sticking out of his pants, which both Shan and Ricard notice. While JD and Shan might be close, Shan has a bond with Brad as well, and as Brad was honest about his advantages, Shan is all aboard the JD boot idea at this point. In essence, she’s the swing vote between the JD/Ricard alliance (ironic, given that Ricard wanted JD out first, but you make do with what you have), and the Brad/Genie alliance. To his credit, JD realizes he messed up, making those Woo comparisons from earlier all the more apt. As such, he makes the risky play of giving his extra vote to Shan as a sign of trust. No word on whether it’s transferrable or not, so presumably no Cirie and the vote steal situation of “Survivor Game Changers” incoming.
We head off to Tribal on the one bit of emotion the show has this episode, with Shan comparing the vote to her parents splitting up, and being asked to choose who to live with. There’s some real emotion there, and you feel for it. Yes, this episode has been using flashbacks, but they’ve all been game related, not for bonding with the cast like in previous episodes. Nothing wrong with that, but this episode has been all “game, game, game”, without much of the humanity that the previous two episodes had. This moment comes the closest, and does work, but it really does feel like now there’s too much going on to actually care about the people playing.
As Shan is the swing vote, you might be wondering which way is the better one for her to go. Honestly, this is the rare situation where there are no bad options. If you get rid of Brad, you’re in power in a tight threesome, and have gotten rid of several advantages that could be used against you. Plus, as we saw, Brad is pretty set in his old-school ways. That said, JD is little better. Brad at least knows when to shut up, but JD plays chaotically and out in the open. Plus, you’re still in the majority if you vote him out, presumably get to keep his extra vote, and had Brad’s advantages to keep you in power come the merge. No bad option for Shan that I can see. If you FORCED me to say which was better, I would say voting out Brad is slightly smarter, since I’d say Shan has more power over Ricard and JD than she does over Brad and Genie, but again, can’t fault her whichever way she goes.
As one would expect with such an emotional tribe, Tribal Council is a fairly subdued affair. For all that this tribe is pretty well splintered at this point, they do seem to genuinely care for each other, which is a plus. JD forces a few metaphors (stop trying, JD, you’re no Voce), but makes up for it with his own humanity. It’s the old saw we’ve heard about his youth and how much the show means to him, but it hits well. It also portends his doom, as we saw with Voce last week. Probst wanting your life story at Tribal Council means you should be prepared to go.
Credit to the editors, they know when their tricks are getting old, and they need to change them up. As soon as people start complaining about how obvious getting your life story at Tribal Council makes your boot, that person stays. Brad is sent home in the slightly smarter move for Shan. I’m mixed on him going. On the one had, he was definitely a more interesting character than I gave him credit for. Very old school in his play style, and when he did do more “new school” antics (spying on Ricard and JD, finding idols and advantages), he acquitted himself well. That said, I identify more with JD, and had him in my draft team, so overall, I think I’m happier with this outcome. Or maybe I’m just happy with the good job the editors did.
“Overstuffed” is the word that comes to mind when I think of this episode. It was nearly what I titled this blog. Look, the editors did a fantastic job with what they had to work with, but there’s just TOO MUCH going on for this season. This episode was basically “Beware Advantage; Challenge; Pre-Tribal Buildup; Tribal Council”. I stand behind this being a good cast, and the first two episodes did a good job of helping us bond with them, but we need to keep that going. Good though the dilemma of this episode was, we don’t need more advantages in the game. Let us get to know the tribes better. Don’t throw in a new dilemma every five minutes. All you’re doing is taking the time away from the heart and soul of the show, and if you keep it up, the solid start this season has had will quickly peter out.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.