Oh mighty and powerful “Survivor” Gods, if you can hear me, I beseech thee: Bestow upon me thy favor, as you have so bestowed your favor upon Karishma! I have but one humble request: Please do not let this season turn out to be another “Survivor Redemption Island”. Do not let us have three good episodes, followed by nothing but garbage afterwards!
Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself into my thoughts. In fact, we can’t even talk about this episode yet, as we still have to talk about the last episode, as it’s time for another edition of…
MATT’S MESS-UP!
Yes, we had two episodes error-free, but I made a mistake and/or omitted something last time. Specifically, while I mentioned that Vince went home with an idol in his pocket, I neglected to give any commentary on his not playing his idol. Now, many have rightly pointed out that he only had two Tribal Councils to play it at, so why not play it, especially when there’s suspicion that he might have on. A reasonable argument, but to be fair to Vince, I think he had good reason not to play it. The women were clearly in power, and they did a convincing job of making him think he had their favor. Plus, what most people seem to forget is that it’s not good for “Two Tribal Councils”, but “Two Tribal Councils you attend.” Vince has good luck with the challenges, and that thing takes him to the merge. Granted, we know that that didn’t happen, but Vince couldn’t have known, and it’s not like Vokai badly loses every single challenge. They only do that with puzzles. Yes, in hindsight, Vince should have played his idol, but the women spun him well, and I can’t fault him too much for holding on to it.
Getting into our actual episode, you’d expect the tribe to be mostly copacetic with their near unanimous decision, since all knew who they wanted, but split the vote to be safe. And you’d be right, but with the exception of Karishma. While I do think she misidentified the causes of no one coming to her aid with the hand thing, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get paranoid about stuff worth getting paranoid about. Case in point, Karishma correctly deduces that being the split boot means everyone considers her expendable, a fact confirmed in confessional. It’s not as cut and dried as that, however. Aaron, in particular, still hasn’t forgotten being left out of that first vote. Thus, he wants as many targets as possible, to keep himself off the radar. He finds fertile target ground in a blossoming showmance between Chelsea and Dean. Yes, the person with the idol, and the person who’s spoken all of two sentences on the show so far. Feel the chemistry. Aaron and Missy confer, agreeing that this is a problem that needs to be nipped in the bud. Can’t fault the logic in wanting to get Dean out. After all, he’s not a member of the core alliance, and with nowhere else to go after he leaves, Chelsea comes back into the women’s alliance. All Aaron gains is another spot ahead of him, but still, that’s not nothing.
Over at Vokai, we get a minor repeat of the J’Tia and the Rice situation from “Survivor Cagayan”, that is, sadly, both less exciting in its execution and in its results. Once again, the person left out of the vote is the person left alone at camp. In this case, members of the tribe agree to either go fishing or walking. Jamal agrees to stay behind. Admittedly no one can really call him on this without looking like a jerk themselves, but still, it’s made to seem like no one is suspicious, which you’d think at least Tommy would be, being the guy who saw the blowup of Jamal the closest. Jamal tries to tie idol-hunting into a bad relationship he had. If you think of the most forced “Survivor”/real life connection you can remember, this is pretty much similar. It does lead to success, as such anecdotes tend to do. While I may mock Jamal’s story, I can’t fault his idol hunting skills. While the tradition of the significant-looking tree remains, it was hidden off the trail and deeply camouflaged in the trunk, so I’m not surprised it took this long to find.
Jamal finding the idol also means we get our first up-close look at the hidden immunity idols this season, confirming once and for all that the art department was doing this season in their sleep. Ah yes, a tribe-colored string with some beads and a large seed. How distinctive.
The fishing expedition returning heralds another boat on the horizon. Naturally, this one is here to take someone to the Island of the Idols. This time, however, production has finally gotten their heads out of their butts, and realized that a random name-draw is boring. What they come up with is only marginally better, but better nonetheless. They basically take the rule from “Survivor Ghost Island”, and apply it to the tribe: Come to a unanimous decision, or draw rocks. At first, the tribe is all gung-ho about drawing rocks, but then Kellee comes in and points out that this is a stupid idea. I knew there was a reason I liked her! Yes, in a game with a decent amount of randomness already, the LAST thing you want to do is add more to it with a rock draw, not to mention you run the risk of your greatest enemy getting an advantage. Besides, it’s more fun to watch the social manipulation and negotiation. Show some backbone.
But who to send? With such a stigma against going, plus Kellee not wanting to be found out in her lie, very few people are eager to go. Lauren is downright terrified of the place. Tommy’s game relies on social bonds, not suspicion, so he doesn’t want to go. Jason does an impression of a stereotypical Jewish mother to convince himself not to go. Coby Archa (“Survivor Palau”) shows up volunteering to go, but is summarily ignored. Finally, Noura volunteers, and despite her being the obvious target, evidently people agree, as the next shot is her coming to the Island of the Idols. I guess the idea is that since she was already a target, she doesn’t have a downside in being sent, but guys, have you forgotten the “Possibly get an advantage” part? Admittedly, Kellee probably hasn’t mentioned that to allay suspicion, but you’ve got to have guessed it from the season name regardless! Why run the risk of your worst enemy getting an advantage?
Well, Noura is greeted by Boston Rob and Sandra, and it becomes clear that Noura is going to be running this particular Island of the Idols. Oh, Rob and Sandra can try and get a word in edgewise, but Noura is just going to talk right over them. Lucky for her, her lesson is about talking. More specifically, the “Art of Persuasion”. In case Boston Rob spelling it out for you wasn’t obvious we cut to a montage of famous persuasive moments in “Survivor” History. We have the mind screw of Erik Reichenbach from “Survivor Micronesia” (always good for a laugh), Parvati flirting with Adam on “Survivor Cook Island” (random, but ok, it’s Parvati, I get why this was included), Yul blackmailing Penner with his hidden immunity idol (a classic), Sandra making Russell Hantz paranoid (easy to do, but still fun to watch), and Boston Rob asking Lex to spare Amber (really, show? You want us to remember THAT part of “Survivor All-Stars? Why not show us Hatch rubbing against Sue while you’re at it?). Some ups and downs, but not the worst cross-section of “Survivor” I’ve ever seen.
This lesson is appropriate for Noura, and her challenge is correspondingly difficult. She’s informed that the immunity challenge with be a “Lead the blindfolded people” challenge, and that to get her advantage, she must convince her tribe to let her be the caller in the challenge. If she fails, she loses her vote, but if she succeeds, she gets a new advantage for the show: a vote block. She can essentially force one person not to vote at a Tribal Council. I applaud the show for coming up with new advantages, but I have to say, I’m not sure this is a good one. Yes, having one less vote, particularly against you, is a good thing, but you ruffle a lot of feathers using it, to very little gain.
Still, this should be an easy enough job for Noura. She’s naturally loud, which is an advantage in a caller, and she’s bossy enough to be good at this. Granted, the caller also needs to be good at puzzles, but we’ve seen no evidence that Noura isn’t at least decent at puzzles. Noura accordingly jumps at the chance, which Sandra and Boston Rob try and walk back. Man, they are REALLY desperate to be able to negotiate with someone.
Noura comes back to camp with not a terrible lie: I know the challenge and can help us practice, but you need to say I’m doing a specific part of the challenge. A little on the nose, but pulled off with subtlety, might work. Sadly this is Noura we’re talking about. Subtlety is not really in her wheelhouse, and she seems to crack a bit under the questioning, not coming up with convincing answers as to why this would be plausible. Probably, she would have been better off just telling the tribe, then volunteering to practice as the caller, citing her loud voice, and hoping to win them over that way. She does start practicing with the tribe for the challenge, and we see that bossiness does not lend itself to clarity. Noura’s micromanaging gets the job done, but slowly, in a challenge where speed is of the essence, and frustrates the tribe as a whole. About the only happy one is Kellee, since he secret is safe with Noura making such a fool of herself.
Off to our immunity challenge, and if I can praise this episode for anything, it’s the mystery! Yes, only Lairo has offered up multiple targets at this point, but Noura has had such a terrible performance this time that I could see the show forgoing mystery in favor of a humiliating “Downfall of Noura” episode. It will all depend on how she does at being the caller.
Or, you know, she could be the sit-out, cutting the story off at the knees, and guaranteeing another loss for Lairo. The show does its level best to give us dramatic tension, but sure enough, they lose.
Back at camp, Karishma seems to be the dead girl walking once again, as pretty much everyone says that they haven’t bonded with her, and to keep the tribe happy, it would be best to just stick with the plan. Plus, in the event of a swap, Karishma is a risk. She has nowhere to go but the women’s alliance on Lairo, but it won’t always just be the women’s alliance. Accordingly, Missy and Aaron want to keep that going by splitting up the showmance, and voting off Dean. Frankly, it’s probably the smartest decision they have, for the reasons I outlined at the top of the blog. When the float the plan to Elizabeth, however, she’s not on board. Neither is Elaine, who Elizabeth lets in on the plan, since she rightly points out that this plan leaves out Tom and Chelsea, further disuniting the tribe. Fair enough, but it’s better if you look at it as bringing Chelsea back into the fold. Do this, and the women all stay strong, and lose a person they didn’t need anyway. Tom may be mad, but what can he do? He’s got little choice. Besides, with all his talk of teamwork, Tom doesn’t strike me as the type who’d flip, even if he was pissed.
Word of this gets back to Missy and Aaron via Elizabeth, and I have to say she plays this well. By getting Elaine on her side, Elizabeth has a scapegoat for who’s the one ruining the plans. “Look, everyone, I want to go along with this, I really do, but Elaine just won’t do it, so we won’t have the numbers.” Gets things to go your way, without the risk of looking like the troublemaker. Especially good since her performance as the caller in the challenge, and subsequent breakdown, did not look good for her, so it’s nice to see her get her game face on.
All this pisses off Missy something fierce, and she complains about people “Not wanting to play the game.” Like Dan earlier in this episode, I have to make my eyes go in a circle here. I’ve said before and I’ll say again: Just because somebody isn’t playing the way you think they should DOESN’T mean they aren’t playing. They’re just playing a different, probably smarter, game than you. Missy then pesters Elaine for a new target, even throwing Chelsea’s name into the mix as an alternative way to split the showmance up as we head to Tribal Council.
The topic of tonight’s Tribal Council is chaos, which will be shown visually this time. It’s barely been an hour at the time of this writing, and I still can’t make heads or tails of what happened. People talked about bullets flying at random, going all the way back to “Plan Z” (evidently this tribe likes “Spongebob Squarepants”), nothing makes sense here! The one thing this Tribal Council has going for it is the complete unknown of the target. About four people on an eight-person tribe have been targeted, leaving things very up in the air as to who will go home. Still, mystery alone is not enough. This Tribal Council has been decent, but nothing spectacular. It needs something to push it over the edge. Cue the awesome music!
Chaos, while entertaining, is not always satisfying. It can lead to situations like Jeremy’s ouster on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”. We got surprised, but also no idea how we got here. That’s what happened tonight, as Chelsea leaves, idol in pocket. She should have known after telling Probst how she likes blindsides. I am very sorry to see Chelsea go. Most of the other targets (save Dean) were interesting characters as well, but Chelsea was a superfan, and playing a decent strategic game. I’d have liked to see more of it.
That said, this is the first really dumb move of the season. I wasn’t a big fan of Molly going out, but there was at least some logic to it. Here, voting out Chelsea goes against both possible stated goals. If you want a unified tribe, well, Karishma was the most on the outs, and the greatest threat in a swap. If you wanted to strengthen the women’s alliance, you needed to vote out a guy. Chelsea does neither of those things. All she does is split up the showmance, and again, in terms of the women’s alliance, Dean’s a better bet. Sorry, ladies. There’s no way to spin this as a good thing.
Yeah, like I said at the top, this was just not a good episode. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be “Crowded”. Up until this point the show’s done a good job of balancing game time with time on Island of the Idols. This time, however, it dominated. We had one short scene at Lairo, one short scene at Vokai, the Island of the Idols, then immunity challenge. This led to pretty much all the strategizing happening between the challenge and Tribal Council, which just makes things too difficult to follow. This is by no means an irredeemable episode, but definitely confusing and weak, especially compared to the other high-quality episodes we’ve had so far this season. Still, I don’t feel a bad episode deserves to end on a bad note. Yes, it is time once again to bring back…
TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!
Yep, while topics have been scarce on the ground as of late, it seems we’ve yet to do a list of the best and worst blindfolded challenges in the history of the show. The Noura arc this episode kind of overshadowed it, but these blindfolded challenges are always good for suspense, action, and lowbrow comedy. How did this season stack up? Let’s start listing off the blindfold challenges of seasons past and find out!
TOP 5
5. “Survivor Cagayan”: Normally, as we’ll see, there’s a lot of physical comedy in this category. “Survivor Cagayan”, however, is an exception. There’s very little physical comedy, and what little there is is mostly groin shots, which are more painful than funny. However, this challenge took to Luzon tribe, already a comedy of errors in the challenge department, put them in a challenge designed to be a comedy of errors, and you’ve got yourself a lot of fun. J’Tia losing the challenge by being unable to pull up a basket in sync with the rest of her tribe? Hilarious.
4. “Survivor Ghost Island”: Later seasons really do tend to cut back on the physical humor of these challenges, which is why you won’t see many of them on this list. When the comedy comes from other places, though, it still works. Case in point, while the competency of callers varies from challenge to challenge, rarely have we seen one fail at grabbing the essentials. This challenge would have been bland and forgettable were it not for Wendell, funnily enough, forgetting to grab the puzzle pieces, and needing to run the course again just to get them. Not funny enough to land higher on the list, but still memorable.
3. “Survivor The Australian Outback”: Sometimes, all you need is an ending. This one was a pretty dull challenge to begin with. Just a bunch of random tasks with no rhyme or reason. But then, Jerri out of nowhere fails at directing Amber to put a basket on a table, leading to an exciting comeback victory for Kucha. A lot of tension and humor to be had. It loses points for the lackluster end to the challenge, but that moment alone deserves a spot on this list.
2. “Survivor Vanuatu”: This particular iteration of a blindfold challenge has a lot of the hallmarks of these sorts of challenges. Callers missing the obvious. People running into objects. People running into each other. Having some pieces out in the water helps make this one a memorable one, but what sets it apart is Sarge yelling “Say my name!” at the end of it all. It’s hard to not join in his triumph, and I defy anyone to tell me it’s not a memorable moment. Seriously, why has Sarge never been on again?
1. “Survivor All-Stars”: It’s the simple things in life. This challenge may not have had the most exciting ending, though the upset of Chapera actually losing a challenge was cool. But moment for moment, this has the best comedy. Lex wandering off on his own. Hatch getting things confused. Big Tom being hit in the head repeatedly. Had this gotten more serious, it would have been an awful challenge. Since no lasting harm was done, though, we can laugh at it. And laugh we shall.
Honorable Mention: “Survivor Gabon”: This challenge is a bit of an odd one. There is the “blindfolded person and caller” element to it, but in this case, that’s only to stop a ball rolling down a hill thrown by the other tribe. A fun and creative challenge, but not strictly a blindfold challenge, which keeps it off the list proper. If nothing else, though, it deserves credit for Randy Bailey thinking of calling out to the other player. A brilliant move that gave Kota a well-deserved win. Well done, Randy.
BOTTOM 5
5. “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”: This was the first blindfold challenge to have the people stay blindfolded while doing a puzzle (no, the blindfold maze from “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” doesn’t count, since it’s not strictly a puzzle), which was a good way to shake things up. Unfortunately the rest of the challenge was kind of lackluster, and needed the puzzle to be difficult to really recommend it. Suffice to say, it was not, and the challenge just kind of falls flat as a result.
4. “Survivor Island of the Idols”: Maybe I’m being mean here, but this one really just didn’t do it for me. We’ve seen all these obstacles before, so they just kind of blend together in my mind, making the whole affair forgettable, even now. Again, I appreciate them doing the puzzle blindfolded, but this time, with no mystery as to who was winning, it just didn’t have the edge or the physical comedy needed to save it.
3. “Survivor Tocantins”: I applaud them for trying something different here, but different doesn’t always mean better. Here, blindfolded people had to make their way through more of a maze than an obstacle course, which is certainly difficult, but not all that interesting to watch. Pouring things into buckets while blindfolded should also be fun, but something just seems off about it. Maybe it’s the labels on the gutters, but this challenge just felt “off” somehow.
2. “Survivor Nicaragua”: Once again, “Survivor Nicaragua” does something wrong. This was when the show tended to put more “modern” things in the show as rewards and I didn’t like it. Here, you had a simple blindfold challenge to pick up various camping items. Not exciting, no physical comedy, and didn’t really fit the show. Need I say more?
1. “Survivor Worlds Apart”: Like I said before, physical comedy is funny, up until you hit the point where people are actually injured. Kelly having that severe a head wound is not fun to watch, and just retroactively makes everything about the challenge worse. For all my gripes, this is the only blindfold challenge I have a real problem with, since it makes me uncomfortable rather than having fun with the concept, like any good challenge should.
Honorable Mention: “Survivor The Amazon”: At first glance, this seems like a pretty standard blindfold challenge. People bumping into each other, people making gaffes. Why put it on the bottom list? Well, according to audio commentary on “Survivor All-Stars” it’s because of missed potential. Butch was the caller for the men, and he was not so good with names, according to Rob Cesternino, and so called out completely wrong identities for his tribe mates. Comedy gold! And they barely showed any of it! For missed potential alone, this challenge must go on the bottom list.
And there you have it. What blindfold challenges did I foolishly leave off either list? Let me know, and I’ll see you in the hopefully better next episode!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.