We’ve all seen more and more nerdy things enter “Survivor”. Statistical analyses. 3-D printed puzzles. The mere existence of Christian Hubicki (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”). Heck, this season alone with have Kane referencing D&D and “Star Wars” pretty much every other sentence. Making clothes has also been a “thing” more frequently than you might think. Sure we all remember Cody’s idol hat from “Survivor 43”, but let us not forget the trials and tribulations of Rupert’s skirt on “Survivor Pearl Islands:. Yet somehow, despite all these factors, I never thought cosplay would enter into the show. But here comes Carolyn, proving me wrong, providing an excellent tutorial on how to use random beach items to give yourself a headpiece and claws. Bravo.
Before we can delve into Carolyn’s “12 Secrets to Creating the Best Island Cosplay” tutorial, however, we have to have a brief announcement from our old friend…
MATT’S MESS-UP!
Just a brief bit of irony that I forgot to touch on last time. Frannie, while somewhat bummed at not being immune from the vote again, was still also excited to “Test her social game”, and see how it stacked up. Trying to put a bright side on being vulnerable. Admirable, but we now see how much her game was actually worth.
Last episode, I mentioned that a downside to getting rid of Frannie is that you piss off Carolyn in doing so. This week, we see precisely WHY this is a bad idea. To say Carolyn does not take it well is an understatement. Not good at hiding her emotions at the best of times, Carolyn makes it abundantly clear how hurt she is by the vote, particularly since her allies Carson and Yam Yam did not clue her in on it. Yam Yam tries to get her to calm down, asking that she not do this in front of everyone, lest the Tika hand be revealed. All true, but pretty rich coming from Yam Yam, the man who, admittedly to a slightly lower extreme, did the exact same thing when HE was blindsided in a vote from his allies. Add another one to the “Irony” counter. Trust me, it’s going to be going up a LOT this episode.
After justifying his vote as him paying back Carolyn in kind for the Sarah vote earlier in the season, we see that Carolyn is not the only one with a chip on their shoulder for the past vote. Danny received a mystery vote, and the suggestion that it may be Frannie does not placate him. He is convinced someone threw a vote his way, and is bound and determined to ferret out who that might be. To that end, he (admittedly in a pretty cordial way all things considered) questions everyone as to who threw a vote his way. The once exception to this is Heidi who, as his ride-or-die, he is certain would never have voted for him. Since the most ironic thing must happen in any given situation this episode, naturally Heidi was the stray vote for him. She’s upset since she thought for sure he was going home (indicating Heidi may not have quite the strategic grasp on tribe dynamics that we thought), but also wisely decides to NEVER admit to Danny that she voted for him.
Oddly, this is an exact parallel of the Lex van den Berghe and T-Bird Cooper situation from “Survivor Africa”, which is admittedly a fun storyline to go back to. That said, man, I never thought I’d be talking about Lex so much when I started this blog. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a decently fun character, but he’s not one of my all-time favorites, nor quite as significant to “Survivor” history as some others, so it’s surprising I keep finding reasons to bring him up.
Morning brings calmer vibes, largely due to group meditation led by Jaime. Everyone reflects on what they’ve gotten out here, leading Heidi to talk about her own past in flashback. It’s a decent transition, but much as I hate to say it, Heidi doesn’t have much in the way of “tragic backstory”. She does mention moving to the US from Puerto Rico, speaking no English, but apart from that, it’s pretty generic “I showed how tough I am in life.” sentiment. Admirable, but not the most unique by a long shot.
More notable from all this is that Carolyn has calmed down enough to make amends with Carson and Yam Yam. Guess she really did just need some time after all. Granted, she doesn’t have a ton of options, but still, good on her for burying the hatchet. All that said, she still doesn’t trust them completely, as when asked directly, she denies having the Tika idol. While she probably has more reason to trust these two than anyone else out there, but with how long you’ve kept it from them, best not to upset the apple cart. Not unless there are very specific circumstances, which may or may not come up later this episode.
The Tika Three, after kind of making a commitment to the Final Three together (they don’t say it out loud, but indicate they do want to stick together), debate how to make it through this round. After all, this is the last round they’re outnumbered, assuming they stay tight together. Yam Yam hits upon the idea of letting Danny know about Heidi’s vote for him, thereby breaking up the pair and creating a rift the tribe can exploit. So Yam Yam does just that. A good plan, assuming Danny believes him. In the other trend of this season, that of “The Truth Not being Believed”, Danny doesn’t believe Yam Yam. Admittedly, given how close Danny and Heidi have been thus far, I can understand it. Far more plausible that Yam Yam is trying to break up that pair with lies, from Danny’s perspective. Heidi lying her butt off only convinces him more, and gets him to realize “Hey, maybe we’ve been giving Tika too much power.” You know, that thing Frannie said two episodes ago. Oh well, better late than never I suppose.
After the aforementioned cosplay tutorial, Carolyn has a bit in the water reenacting “The Little Mermaid” (her words, not mine), using that time to bond with Yam Yam as well. They talk again about who they want in the finals, but really, nothing new comes of it. The exception is Yam Yam giving us a fun little bit where he proposes three of his “multiple personalities” take up the spots. Oh, Yam Yam. You may not be strategically as good as you think, but damn if you aren’t hilarious!
Hilarious, but vulnerable. Danny, in his newfound anti-Tika crusade, needs allies, and so goes to Lauren, being another regularly-targeted person to get on his side. While Lauren admits in confessional that she doesn’t fully trust Danny, she recognizes that what he says makes sense. The pair agree to go for Yam Yam for being too “nice”, and thereby difficult to beat in the end, which is logic I can’t fault. I’d say Carolyn and Carson are even better targets (Carolyn to flush the idol, Carson because he’s good socially and also has puzzle skills for an immunity run), but hey, Yam Yam also makes sense, and the larger goal is just “Weaken Tika”, which this targeting does.
Off to our immunity challenge, which, unsurprisingly, is “Last Gasp”, aka “The Drowning Simulator” first seen on “Survivor Palau”. I say “Unsurprisingly” since the show now LOVES reusing major structures, and hey, if it was on last season, why not do so again? Beats most of the repeat challenges, and at least there’s no puzzle, but I stand by this one not doing it for me as much as for others. Once again, it’s largely down to me being very comfortable in the water, and thus not finding this quite as creepy. That said, if there’s someone for whom the creep factor is very visceral, it’s Lauren. Understandable, given that she’s been shown to not be the best in water challenges, and part of that is keeping your cool underwater. She’s out relatively quickly. Not as fast as Janu in the first iteration of this challenge, but pretty quick.
Our two Puerto Ricans, Yam Yam and Heidi, end up duking it out. Somewhat to my surprise, Yam Yam wins, leading to Danny comically jumping in the water to let him know when he can’t hear Probst. Given the size of his face, I would have given Heidi the edge, just because she can stick her face through the bars further. Still, good for him, and Yam Yam gets a nice moment to celebrate being athletic, a trait he evidently doesn’t share with his family at large. It’s honestly a nice, effective scene. I would have preferred we explore the discrimination against the overweight, and how that can affect people a bit more, but hey, the scene still works. Plus, now we have drama with the main target immune.
The Tika Three, correctly realizing that they were not successful in dividing Danny and Heidi, switch to a split between Jaime and Lauren. However, everyone else is ALSO aware that this is the plan, with Danny saying that will be the decoy plan given to the Tika Three so they don’t get suspicious. I WOULD get on Danny’s case for appearing to order it without consultation once again, but given that neither Jaime nor Lauren seem particularly mad when he says this, I’m going to assume this was a group decision he was just reiterating.
Enough word of this gets back to Tika that they go to Jaime and Lauren offering to split between Danny and Heidi themselves. This puts Jaime and Lauren as the swing votes, between Carson (the actual target of Danny with Yam Yam immune) and Danny. For once, there is a clear “Right” and “Wrong” choice. Carson is the correct person to vote out. Don’t get me wrong, Danny will need to go at some point. You don’t want him in the end with you, since he’s a likable guy who can say he made it despite a target on his back, and hasn’t made any real enemies (maybe Frannie, but even that’s a stretch). But there are so many reasons to go for Carson instead. I would list them all, but I don’t have to. Jaime does it for me. She says the Tika Three need to be broken up, and Carson is more of an immunity threat, given his prowess with puzzles, and the fact that he’s, you know, WON individual immunity, unlike Danny.
Yes, take it in, folks. Jaime said something that was 100% correct, with no caveats.
Lauren does bring up trusting Carson more than Danny, which I can understand. They’ve lived together longer, and actually voted together. Even so, Jaime’s points are salient, and ultimately the better move, at least for this vote.
Misdirection effectively neutered, we need something new. Enter Carolyn and her idol. Give the woman credit: She quickly recognizes that something is up, and sets about interrogating Danny. Danny, in my view, actually does a pretty good acting job in denying it, but Carolyn smells trouble. As such, wanting to keep Carson around (sensibly, since sticking with the Tika Three for now gives Carolyn a better spot in the game), she decides to play her idol on him. NOW she tells Carson about her idol, and again, I can understand why. By doing it now, she skips the “Oh, you kept something from me.” phase that would put her at risk, and have it be overridden by the “Thank you so much for saving me!” phase.
Carolyn’s real dilemma, though, is who to vote for between Heidi and Danny. Her fear is that if Danny plays an idol (and for all that I knocked her game earlier, it must be said that Heidi IS really good at keeping secrets, both with her idol and her vote against Danny), then the vote might bounce back against herself, and thus throwing a vote on Heidi might be smart, despite really preferring Danny. Frankly, this should not be a dilemma. Heidi should get Carolyn’s vote. Either Jaime and Lauren are with you, in which case your throwaway vote won’t matter (save for possibly making Heidi angry, but at this point, a worthy safety risk), or they aren’t, in which case a safety vote is a wise decision. Yet Carolyn is somehow conflicted as we head off to Tribal.
Look, this has been a stellar episode. Pretty standard in some ways, but we get a deep dive into the “Why” of each strategic move, and a good amount of time to just sit and let the players be people (something we’ll hopefully get more of now that 90-minute episodes will be the norm come next season). All very good stuff, and all well-put together. But the Tribal Council, while by no means the WORST, even by general standards, is just weak. We are, blessedly, largely devoid of metaphors this time, but it’s mostly just generic strategic talk with little fun thrown in. Admittedly there is one good moment wherein Carolyn gets rather aggravated after mishearing something that Lauren said, and then at Danny’s attempts to clarify the situation. It doesn’t get inflamed, but DOES lead to her staring intensely at Probst, which freaks him out. That’s always good for a chuckle.
Carolyn agonizes in the voting booth, which, again, I don’t think she should be doing. At first, it seems like she might have been agonizing over whether or not she needed to actually play her idol, since she waits until Probst gets to the “Okay” part of “Okay, I’ll read the votes” to do so. Play it she does, though, and despite what the numbers will tell us momentarily, I don’t blame her. That Carson was a likely target was a good read, and while this may show her hand a bit early as a strategic threat, given how long she kept her idol secret, it needed to be done, I feel. Yes, she could have done a Maryanne (“Survivor 42”) and just revealed it at the end, but consider just HOW kooky Carolyn is perceived here. The ONE reason there were any second thoughts on voting out Yam Yam or Carson was that Carolyn would be tough to deal with in the aftermath. Not the look of a player well-respected strategically. Unless you’re an orator at godly levels, you need to start changing that perception a bit earlier, and by the looks of the jury and the remaining players when Carolyn comes up to player her idol, she’s starting to do that. It’s a risk, as again, she now seems a more appealing target than before, but one I think she needs to take to stand a chance at winning.
So no, despite Carson not actually receiving a majority of the votes, I will not fault Carolyn this idol play. I WILL, however, fault her for pulling an Aubry (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”). Given my well-documented love for Aubry, you would think this would mean a good thing, and most of the time you’d be right. Despite the fact that she remains my all-time favorite player, however, that does not mean I think she is flawless. In particular, probably her biggest mistake was crossing out Julia very bluntly to write down Peter’s name instead right before the merge; a move so infamous most people avoid even the remotest possibility of doing so like the plague. Those people are not Carolyn, however. Admittedly, her idol play probably overshadows that particular reveal, so I don’t think the consequences will be as devastating for her as they ended up being for Aubry (and even Aubry’s I think were not played up enough in the moment given the outcome of the season, but that’s neither here nor there right now), but still, not the move of Aubry’s game to be copying, Carolyn.
In the end, as mentioned, the idol play actually WASN’T needed mathematically, as Lauren and Jaime decided to vote for Heidi, meaning Danny would have gone home anyway (unless Carolyn had voted for Heidi, but if Carolyn had known they were voting that way anyway, she would have known not to play her idol, so I stand behind my logic for her not needing to agonize over this). Danny TRIES to be memorable on his way out, giving some spiel to Probst about snuffing his torch. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get it. From what I’ve gathered asking around, he’s doing a Robert De Niro impression, but having never watched any of his films, I can’t say. Doesn’t do it for me either way. I’m mixed about Danny leaving. He was definitely the bigger character of the targets tonight, but also not the most interesting strategically, and I can’t deny his character didn’t really “do it” for me. All that said, it does leave Tika firmly in control, barring some break-up and/or idol shenanigans from Heidi, which is not that great.
Possibly predictable season outcome aside, this was still a fantastic episode. All the reasons I said earlier still apply: Good insight into strategy, good character moments, excellent humor. The worst I could say is that the misdirection wasn’t the best (Carson got too little content for this to be his boot episode), and the Tribal Council was a bit dull. The rest of the factors very much make up for that, though, and I hope this season can finish as strong as its buildup!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 