Idol Speculation: “Survivor Cambodia” Episode 9: Fish-Come-Bach

At first glance, the title of this blog might seem to indicate a cry of remorse for the demise of my favorite remaining contestant this season, but quite the opposite! Stephen Fishbach has finally managed to shake off his goober edit. And it only took him NINE EPISODES to do it. “Survivor” Mastermind, everybody! Nothing can stop this blog now…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Consarn it, three in a row?! I’m really losing my touch. Last blog, I made fun of Keith for being unable to correctly say “Tuk-Tuk”. Evidently, I AM Keith, because I misremembered it as “Tau-Tau”. Yeah, that’s definitely a low point for me. Also, while celebrating the demise of Andrew Savage, I neglected to give due props to Kelley Wentworth. While I’m always one who advocates hiding the hidden immunity idol unless you have good reason to share it, it’s difficult to do. About the only thing more difficult is knowing precisely when to play the hidden immunity idol. Kelley did both to perfection, and deserves much praise for her efforts.

The start of the episode alleviates my guilt somewhat, though, as Kelley gives herself plenty of praise for her move, to the point where she becomes a bit of a braggart. Look, it was a good move, and I won’t deny that Savage being out of the game instead of yourself is cause for celebration, but she just takes it a bit too far. It’s a shame, because I’ve come to like Kelley Wentworth a lot. She takes a lot of initiative, has a good wit, and for once is a person on “Survivor” named Kelley who is not, as I once described, “As bland as beige wallpaper.”, so this little bit of tarnish is disappointing, though not fandom-altering.

We also see the drawback to Kelley’s idol play shortly after this. While hiding your idol pretty much guarantees you can make that clutch play with little interference, it only saves you one vote. Case in point, Kimmi comes in to rally the troops, wanting to get one of the three out again. She compares them to the witches from “MacBeth”, although with the ferocity with which everyone’s against them, I think more of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”. Not to say that the three haven’t done anything to EARN their witch hunt (Ciera and Abi-Maria, at least, voted out Woo, who could be considered part of the current dominant alliance), but I just see more parallels there. Point being, despite her masterful idol play, Kelley is still in trouble.

The next morning, we see that Kelley’s move DID shake up the alliance somewhat, but not quite in the way she was expecting. With her idol gone, most everyone surmises that a new idol must be in play, and set about searching for it. It’s mostly standard fare, but we do get Abi-Maria doing one of the oddest jobs of tailing another player ever. She meets up with Joe and, not wanting him to have the idol, insists that she needs to use the bathroom, and demands privacy. There’s two problems with this plan. One of them is that Joe is still on his own, just not in the are you are, and more importantly HOW DOES THIS PLAN POSSIBLY WORK? You have MILES of empty beach, why do you need that one specific spot? And why does Joe just up and give it to you? this scene makes no sense!

Jeremy is also concerned with this new idol, since with Savage gone, he feels vulnerable. I just have to ask, though, doesn’t Jeremy already have an idol on him?

*CRASH*

ME: Oh, great, here we go again…

JEREMY: You don’t understand, man! I gotta have two idols! One for me, and one for Val!

ME: Val isn’t even on this season!

JEREMY: Ah, but I think about her every day, and I want the money to be used for her and our child. Plus, I get a really sentimental crying scene later on that totally justifies it.

ME: Yeah, ok, I guess that makes sense. Just saying, you’re being a bit paranoid.

JEREMY: Maybe. But after what happened on “Survivor Dan Juan del Sur”, can you really blame me for wanting double protection?

ME: I suppose not. Just remember what happened to the last guy who had two idols on him. James from “Survivor China”?

JEREMY: Don’t worry, I’m much smarter than him. Sorry about the wall, by the way. I’ll have it repaired tomorrow.

ME: Cool, thanks man! Now I won’t have to strangle you with my nice, new Bayon buff.

JEREMY: Uh… cool… I guess…

(JEREMY exits awkwardly out the hole in the wall)

Following Jeremy’s paranoid episode, we cut back to “Survivor Cagayan”, where we’ve eliminated the pointless “Beauty” category, and made this a sheer test of Brains vs. Brawn. Right now, we’re in the middle of an “individual” reward challenge. Each team of five will have to assemble poles of various lengths into holes, climb over what is effectively a jungle gym, and slide down a rough bamboo slide. One person then maneuvers a key through a stick-and-rope maze unlocking wooden rectangular puzzle pieces. After the rest of the team races through said maze, two team members work together to assemble a puzzle that will reveal three numbers of a combination, which, when entered, raises a flag conveniently titled “Reward”. Winning team gets a good, old-fashioned spa day, complete with over-the-top Probst description. Apart from my usual gripe with “individual” reward challenges being changed to team competitions, I don’t have much of a problem with this one. There’s a lot of cool elements, and a good mix of the physical and mental components.

Our purple team, the “Brains”, consists of Tasha, Stephen, Joe, Ciera, and Spencer, while the green team, or “Brawns”, consists of Kelley, Kelly, Jeremy, Keith, and Kimmi, with Abi-Maria not fitting into either the “Brains” or “Brawns” category (good call there, everybody!). Now, this may seem a bit odd to people, since 9 of these people weren’t even on “Survivor Cagayan”, but I mean, look at the breakup of those teams. Tasha clearly chose smarts more than strength, while brain-trust Kelly picked all the strong physical players. And it shows. The Brawn team gets past the first puzzle part, but just barely. It’s an embarrassment, but frankly, it’s fun to watch.

Since Ciera is on this particular reward, you can be sure she’ll try and talk up a big move this time around. She chooses to do so while Joe is in the shower, which you think would mean that Joe is about to be targeted, but soon enough Joe is out of the shower, and everyone is listening to Ciera, discussing about the threat posed by Jeremy and Kelly. First point: why is Tasha listening to this? I get why everyone else is, since they either want to make a move to get off the bottom, or are scared of a blindside, but Tasha is sitting pretty comfortably at this point. Granted, it’s usually good to listen to all sides, to make sure you’re taking the best possible option out there, but Tasha is maybe ignoring a threat here, a threat that could (and will) depose her place in the game. Second, I get that Jeremy is a threat, even if you don’t know about his idols, but Kelly? I don’t like her this season because she hasn’t DONE anything, but I also acknowledge that this makes her non-threatening. Admittedly, the arguments they make about Kelly do make sense, mainly that she’s a social threat who hasn’t offended anybody. However, with the amount that she’s being targeted, having seen virtually NOTHING of her this season, it just feels kind of rushed.

Oh, and while I’ll be praising Stephen a lot this episode, I do have to point out here that his justification for strategizing is that nobody wants to be on the bottom of the obvious hierarchy. I would have no problem of this; it’s fairly logical; but it was STEPHEN who only last episode said that “This season’s different, there’s no hierarchical structure!”, and is now blatantly contradicting himself.

Back at the camp, everyone is understandably down, but Jeremy’s really been the major debbie downer of the group. An idol hunt is just what he needs to bring his spirits up. He searches for a bit around tree mail, before stumbling upon the clue within the big tree by tree mail. Um, did NO ONE think to look in that tree? It’s fairly well-hidden in said tree, but I feel like someone would have thought to look there by now. Perhaps the difference this season is not so much that they’re hiding clues in different places, but they’re justing hiding them more thoroughly in obvious places, so you can’t stumble across them accidentally.

Thus far this season, hidden immunity idols have been hidden at challenges, to make them harder to pick up, and as I’ve stated, it’s a twist that I like. The flaw in it, though, is that it’s only fair at the tribal phase of challenges. Once you hit individual challenges, you would be hiding the idol on the specific part of the course that individual would be on, giving them an unfair advantage in finding it. There are many creative and exciting ways to solve this problem, and we go with… just hiding it far away from camp at night. Yeah, kind of a letdown in my opinion. It’s basically just giving people a clue runaround that’s only present at a certain time. Very atmospheric, but not very difficult. The clue even says to wait until people are asleep, you know, the time when it’s EASIEST to get an idol without being seen! A bit of a cop-out for this season. Jeremy even takes a leaf out of Abi-Maria’s book, and claims to be off using the bathroom when his tribe does not fall asleep immediately. And it works. Are bathroom breaks just this tribe’s blind spot. If someone were to say they were going to use the bathroom at the immunity challenge, would only they show up?

This is also where we get the aforementioned Jeremy emotional moment. Like I said before, it’s a nice moment, but I don’t feel the need to dwell on it too much.

Evidently, this episode is meant to be a tribute to “Survivor Cagayan” (not that I’m complaining, mind you, since it’s a great season), as our immunity challenge comes courtesy of that season as well. It also come courtesy of “Survivor Caramoan”, but since no one is on from that season, it doesn’t exist in Probst’s mind. Each contestant will stand on a small triangular prism in the middle of the ocean, on increasingly small ridges, last one standing wins. Simple and insidious, but also not a very spectacular-looking challenge. On top of that, while I enjoy endurance challenges, we’ve had NOTHING but endurance immunity challenges this season, and it’s getting old really fast. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of this challenge, but can’t say I hate it either.

Really, there are two things that make this challenge fun for me. I’ll discuss the second one first, because it requires less discussion. We eventually move to our final round, where everyone can only use one leg. Take note, Andrea and Brenda, your rule from “Survivor Caramoan” got added to the challenge! St. Joe is in the finals, as you’d expect, but who’s his opponent? Abi-Maria. True, it does make sense, as this is a challenge that favors the petit. However, St. Joe nearly loses on a number of times. And I know that St. Joe is not actually infallible, and that losing is not humiliation, but to have potentially lost to Abi-Maria? That’s hilarious! Sure, it doesn’t ultimately come to pass, but it’s a hilarious concept. How could anything top that? You’ll see…

So, most of the way through the first round, we hear some of the usual Probst banter, about the toughness of the challenge, how great this season is, etc. Like good contestants, everyone ignores him, until he talks about adding a twist to this challenge. Is it the usual food offer for a quit that we usually get? Unless the food is underwater, no. Probst chops a rope on his platform, sending colored buoys up to the surface, one for each player. He announces that the first person to touch their buoy wins an advantage in the game, keeping mum about what that advantage is. The catch? The buoy is too far away to be reached, so one must give up immunity to get it. This is a GLORIOUS twist, and a highlight of the episode. It’s mysterious, it’s something new that we haven’t seen before, and it has implications beyond just giving someone an advantage. Do you go for it? How eager do you seem if you do? Will this only put a bigger target on your back? Can you even win immunity? Is it even worth trying? This turmoil makes for great, tense television, and I enjoy the hell out of it!

Of course, even a great twist can be ruined if no one bites. Thankfully, that’s not the case here, and the result of the twist is, if anything, more exciting than the twist itself. After a few seconds of hesitation, two people jump in and swim for it: Stephen and Spencer. I can’t fault either of them in this case. They’re unlikely to win immunity, and are both potential swing votes who could use some extra power in this game. For everyone else, they either need immunity, or have a decent shot at winning immunity, or are just so not involved in the game at this point that going for an advantage at this point is a waste (Kelly and Kimmi, I’m looking at you!) Maybe Tasha should have jumped, but I don’t think it’s a game-breaker. Oh, but it gets better! In a rare moment of “Oops!” for Spencer, history repeats. Like with the reward auction on “Survivor Cagayan”, Spencer risks it all for an advantage, but comes up just short. Stephen, in the most athletic feat we’ve seen from him all season, wins the advantage, a bamboo shoot with a note in it.

What does this note say? Well, with most known immunity idols in play, it’s most likely the “Extra Vote” twist from “Survivor Worlds Apart” that I wasn’t overly fond of. That conclusion is partially correct, but they’ve improved it immensely, in my opinion. Now, instead of adding a vote to the Tribal Council, one person gets an extra vote at the EXPENSE of someone else’s vote. A bit unfair to the person, since they could go home without any say, but, as I’ve said before, since when is “Survivor” about fairness? Furthermore, this solves the problem I had with how the extra vote was done on “Survivor Worlds Apart”. My problem there was that it was too simplistic, too easy to get around, with no really strategy added to it. This way, though, strategy becomes paramount. Who do you use you vote steal on? How will everyone else take it? And once it’s known, what can people do to counteract it? There’s more possibilities this way, is what I’m saying.

Possibilities we won’t see tonight, as Stephen says he’d rather use his intellect to force a flip, which I don’t entirely agree with. I’ll get into this more in a bit but the only person for whom I really think a flip this episode is NECESSARY is Stephen. Tonight’s really the last night he’ll have the numbers, but everyone else has other options. Rather than try and convince others to flip, use your advantage to shake things up, and make people more likely to flip. Further, it helps you avoid the “Dan Foley” pitfall (“Survivor Worlds Apart”), where you become a target thanks to people fearing your power.

Still, Stephen does have a massive intellect, let’s see what he does with it. With St. Joe immune, Kelly is the next obvious target. To cement this idea, we get a scene of St. Joe and Kelly bonding, which would have a lot more impact if we’d had any indication of this bond BEFORE TONIGHT! Was the scene of Keith on reward more essential than building up Kelly’s relationship building? Again, I do not understand how airtime is decided, but it seems to me that, for all the random buildup of Kelly’s social skills we’ve been getting this episode, we could have been laying it out earlier.

Stephen chance comes when Kimmi, arguably the most staunch member of the majority, insists that one of the “Witches” has to go. Look I was ok with Kimmi before now, but tonight she really got on my nerves. While she’s certainly playing a more proactive game than she was on “Survivor The Australian Outback”, she hasn’t evolved much beyond that season. I’m not sure I’d say this is a new “Evolution of the game”, but it’s true that having one solid majority that Pagongs the minority doesn’t really work anymore, and certainly isn’t working this season. Yet Kimmi, rather than adjust her strategy, tries to ride that cart to the end. It’s a bit frustrating from someone I expected more of.

In any case, Kimmi suggests they split the vote, five for Kelley, three for Ciera, which is admittedly a pretty smart move. All Stephen needs to do is be one of the Kelley votes, and get another Kelley vote to flip. Spencer is probably his best bet, as Spencer, being definitely on the low end of the totem pole, has the most incentive to flip. So, naturally, Stephen talking to Spencer doesn’t surprise me. What DOES surprise me is that Jeremy is also in on the conversation. What incentive does Jeremy have to flip? He talks like he’s on the bottom with everybody, but everything we’ve seen indicates that he’s on the top of the alliance. Why screw that up? He says he wants to work with Stephen, but both he and Spencer make the fair point that nothing guarantees that Ciera, Kelley, and Abi-Maria will stay loyal after this vote, plus it pisses off Kimmi, Tasha, Joe, and Keith. It does do a good job of creating uncertainty, though, and we head off to Tribal Council a bit unsure of what’s going to happen.

Tonight’s Tribal Council is certainly a memorable one, but more for how extreme the weather is than anything that actually happens there. The trouble is that it’s mostly retreading the same ground as the last Tribal Council. Kelley and Ciera talk about how screwed they are, and Stephen gives his “Non-hierarchical” speech again, and we have a vote.

While the votes are being cast, let me say that I’m not buying this whole “New evolution, non-hierarchical” thing Stephen is spouting. This season is more chaotic than other seasons, I’ll grant you, but it’s just expanding upon the basic “Don’t let the same majority run the whole game” idea that’s been around since “Survivor The Amazon”, and arguably has become the norm since then. On top of that, there clearly IS a hierarchy to this alliance, or Stephen wouldn’t be trying to flip the game. I don’t know what he’s selling, but I’m not buying it at all, and I’m growing really irritated by it. It’s like the show is trying to force it down our throats that this season is different, this season is special. Not to say that it isn’t those things for a number of reasons, and I stand by my conviction that this is a really great season so far, but I wouldn’t say it’s bringing about a new evolution of strategy or anything.

When the votes are tallied, Stephen’s intellect gets its wish, and Kelly gets sent home. I am not sorry at all. Kelly brought NOTHING to the table, either as a strategist or as a character. The only thing she had going for her was the novelty of seeing an “Original Contestant” brought back after all this time, and even then we didn’t get much of that. I’d almost say Kelly will be the forgotten contestant of this season, but because of her “old school-ness”, she does stand out a little bit, and so that reward probably goes to either Peih-Gee or Monica. Point being, Kelly is not a huge loss from a fan perspective. It cuts the fat off an already stellar cast, which can only improve the already great.

As to whether this was a good move? Tough to say. I’d definitely say it was for Stephen, since I think he doesn’t have the social connections to make a big move much later than this, but it’s harder to say for Spencer and Jeremy. I guess I can see why Spencer would be tempted, since his value is as a swing vote, and so as many blindsides as possible is good for him. Jeremy, though… I fail to see the upside. For a man so paranoid about never being a threat, he’s bound to make a fe enemies with this move. On top of that, if this alliance of six stays together, he’s the biggest threat. What happened to your strategy man?

About the only harder question is whether this was a good episode. Nothing particularly bad or stupid happened, but it did retread of lot of ground from the previous episode, which got old fast. And while I can certainly say I enjoyed it, it just lacked that spectacular air that’s been going throughout the rest of this season. By any other standards, a good episode, but by this season, ok at best. Still an improvement, though. Lets hope the trend continues.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Cambodia” Episode 8: First We Kill All The Lawyers

Let me take you back, at the beginning of this blog, to another time. A time specifically one year ago. A simpler time. A time when “entertainment” meant slack-jawed yokels mispronounced foreign words for your amusement. A time when the audience was blindsided along with the cast. A time when we had to wait several episodes to get a competent strategist to root for. Yes, it’s the oh so “Meh, it was ok, I guess”-ed season known as “Survivor San Juan del Sur”. History repeats itself here, in almost exactly the same episode, but for once I’m not going to rage and storm about it like I did then. Does this show incredible bias and favoritism on my part? Yes. But I’m on the internet, so what do you expect?

Before we hop into our TARDIS and begin our voyage through history in the present day, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Two in a row! Truly, we are setting a great trend for this part of the season! Through all of my “Kass is Gone” tears, I completely forgot to talk about the individual immunity idol this season, which is a real shame, because it is premium-grade, heavy-metal AWESOME! While it could be argued that it’s similar to a few other individual immunity idols (the one from “Survivor Nicaragua” springs to mind), this one manages to be unique in a good way. We’ve never really seen red as a primary color in an individual immunity idol, and it plays really well with the gold bits to give it a distinctive look that feels “idol-ish” if that makes any sense. Bottom line, you BELIEVE that this idol really grants someone immunity, and that kick-ass look makes it a nice addition to the season.

Entering the episode proper, now, I’ll admit I was worried about the probable Kass-bashing that was going to happen, presumably courtesy of Tasha and maybe Savage. While I’m sure it still happened, we are fortunately spared that unpleasantness, and instead go to Savage and Jeremy congratulating each other on an alliance well-brought-together, which admittedly they’ve earned. I’m unhappy with the outcome, of course, but to get a majority in this large a tribe, and in fact a plurality? They deserve much praise. In particular, I’d say Savage deserves props for bringing everything together, as he seems to be the binding agent for the alliance. Take careful note of this praise, Savage, you’re going to be getting very little of it tonight.

The two then discuss who they want to get out next, and agree that the “three girls”, being Ciera, Abi-Maria, and Kelley need to go next, presumably in that order. I’d normally be against voting out unthreatening swing votes at this phase of the game, but for this pair, I’d say it actually makes a lot of sense. I’ll be talking about this in a bit more detail later, but for people who could be considered physical threats like Savage or Jeremy, a “Bro-Down” is actually a pretty good move. Plus, since those women are on the bottom, they’re likely going to stir up trouble.

Sure enough, the women (or at least Ciera) are at the center of oncoming trouble, though they may not be the cause. No, after lying dormant for an episode, Stephen’s Protestant Reformation against St. Joe continues, as he talks to Ciera about the possibility of voting Joe out. And, like for Jeremy and Savage, what Stephen is saying makes sense for him. He’s weaseled his way into the Bro-Down somewhat, but he’s still probably low man on the totem pole there, particularly given Savage’s earlier crusade against him. True, I’d argue it’s a bit early, since betraying an alliance now means more people on the jury who hate your guts, but Stephen’s correct in that, if he wants to win this time around, he needs to correct his mistakes last time around of not being seen as enough of a mover and shaker and going to the end with an alpha male. Since I’m rooting for Stephen at this point (even if the edit indicates that he has no chance at all of winning this time around), I gladly accept this turn of events.

Today’s reward challenge involves two teams of six rowing out in a criss-cross pattern to pick up colored crates, which they must then bring to shore and stack so that no color repeats on any side to win a trip to a cafe. While the puzzle hails from “Survivor Samoa” originally, the crate-pulling and criss-cross rowing comes courtesy of “Survivor Blood vs. Water”. Naturally, since Ciera was on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, and her tribe lost that challenge, we chalk this up as a second chance for… KELLY! It’s just so logical, right? I mean, how ELSE are we going to get her any screen-time? In all seriousness, while the call-back to her being beaten by Gervase on “Survivor Borneo” was hilarious, I personally feel like it was a little bit forced. It’s common knowledge by now that Kelly wasn’t at all interested in giving the producers good sound-bytes, or really playing anything resembling an interesting game, and so she’s been getting the shaft. I also understand that, as the player from arguably the most popular season of “Survivor” ever, you’d want to play her up as much as possible. But when you just sort of haphazardly shove her in there, it just feels forced. Mostly because it is. The only similarity the challenges have is that they involve rowing. A better connection than some, but kind of flimsy, in my opinion.

As to the challenge itself, it’s pretty good. A bit basic, and we once again have a team challenge post-merge, but it’s definitely a tough one, has a good balance of physical and mental components, it makes for an ok competition. It helps a lot that the teams are pretty even at this point. The purple team has Kelley, Kelly, Ciera, Kimmi, Joe, and Keith, while the green team has Stephen, Jeremy, Savage, Spencer, Abi-Maria, and Tasha. All have their physical strength and their dead weight, and all have their puzzle-solvers. Plus, this is the sort of challenge where come-from-behind victories are easier, due to the puzzle. It seems like we’ll get that, when green falls behind due to paddling trouble. Then, however, Stephen FINALLY steps up and does a puzzle, calling the shots and sending green team to the mat first. Then you remember that this is “Survivor Cambodia”, where Stephen seemingly cannot do anything right, and so he has the puzzle wrong, meaning purple team wins anyway. Probst plays up Kelly’s supposed “redemption”, and Stephen curses the fact that the main people he wanted to swing to his Protestant Reformation are all off on reward, while he’s stuck at camp.

Also, I quickly wan to bring up here that Probst, in hyperbolically describing the reward, says the winners will “Overdose on caffeine”. Um, Probst? You do know that can kill you, right? Not a good thing to say there, man.

We get our requisite “This reward is so awesome” sound-bytes from Kelley and Kimmi this time around, Kimmi in particular complaining about getting no food rewards from her season. Actually, Kimmi, as I recall, your tribe DID get food rewards. It’s just that said rewards were chickens, and you’re a vegetarian.

The cheery atmosphere doesn’t last long, as talk quickly turns to strategy. Ciera apologizes to everyone there for potentially implying that they weren’t playing at the last Tribal Council, diplomatically stating that she was merely trying to say that they should make a move while they still have the numbers, avoiding her mistake on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”. Of all people to chime in that they agree with her philosophy, it’s St. Joe, which strikes me as very odd. You see, I’m normally in favor of people questioning the status quo, but of all people present, St. Joe has the LEAST reason to question the Bro-Down. For St. Joe, as well as for the other strong alpha-males, a Bro-Down is really their best chance at survival. It’s been established for a while now that alpha males become the targets post-merge, if not sooner. The trouble for the alpha male is that, barring that they’re really charming (see J.T. of “Survivor Tocantins”) or the people around them are idiots (see Tom Westman of “Survivor Palau”), they’re too obvious a target, and there’s no incentive for them to be kept around. With a Bro-Down, however, there is a SLIGHT incentive to be kept around. There’s always going to be a “Top alpha male”, like St. Joe is in this scenario, who’s a target above the rest, but each alpha male beneath him knows that if he’s gotten rid of, the target moves to THEIR back potentially. Thus, a Bro-Down is a form of mutually-assured destruction. Every alpha knows that taking out another alpha only increases the target on their back, and thus they don’t do it. Does it make for boring, predictable tv? Sure. But it’s smart.

But enough with the engaging strategy talk, let’s all watch Keith mispronounce foreign words, and generally be stupid and ignorant! Seriously, this isn’t as bad as some other times I’ve seen him, with Keith simply riding the Tau-Tau used to bring them to the cafe, and calling it a “Toto”, but I don’t see what’s funny about this. Stupid people aren’t funny. They’re just stupid.

We head back on over to Orkun, following a shot of their frankly BEAUTIFUL tribe flag, where Stephen is still upset. Trying to have another breakdown moment like he had two episodes ago, he talks to those remaining about how he partially lost his last game due to not going on a reward, specifically the river rafting reward that J.T., Brendan, and Debbie went on. Stephen does have something of a legitimate point here (after all, this is the reward where Brendan declared “J.T. winning this game is like me winning this game.”), it just comes off as a bit flat to me, particularly compared to Stephen’s other breakdown, which was bigger and much more heartfelt. And of course, Abi-Maria brings her usual charm to this scene by telling Stephen to just “Get over it.”

Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Stephen decides to talk with some people about his Protestant Reformation plan. While most of the people he wanted to bond with are off on reward, there are still a few people at camp Stephen can talk to. He starts off by making his pitch to Spencer. Pretty good choice. Spencer admitted himself last episode that he was something of a free agent this time around, and he seems receptive. Next, Stephen talks to Jeremy about the idea. Ok, a bit riskier, since Jeremy wants to use Joe as a shield, and is just generally close with Joe, but Jeremy seems to be on board, admitting that Joe needs to go at some point. Then Stephen talks to… Tasha? Ok, what’s your deal here, Stephen? The other two were at least semi-logical, but Tasha’s in tight with Joe. Why would you think she’d be at all into your plan?

It is this chat that does Stephen in, but not due to Tasha spilling the beans, but rather due to the stealth skills of Savage. Savage overhears their conversation, and immediately returns to his anti-Stephen plans, basically calling Stephen a deceptive scumbag, and saying that he has no time for liars in this game. I’m REALLY starting to question whether Savage knew what he was getting into when he applied for “Survivor”. You don’t like liars, Savage? On “Survivor”? Have you ever SEEN the show? I’m really not sure, at this point.

And here’s where we get into why Savage rubs me the wrong way. The man expects people to play the game in a “fair” way, or rather a way that gives him an easy victory, and then gets mad when they act in their own self-interest, which is a PART OF THE GAME I might add. Worse then that, when someone even TALKS about voting apart from him, he goes on an all-out character assassination of that person. You DARE to go against the great Andrew Savage? You, my foe, are the scum of the earth! I sort of have a similar problem with Tasha, since she seems to get mad when people don’t do thing exactly like she wants them to, but Tasha at least keeps the personal attacks to a minimum (that we see on screen). Savage, on the other hand? He insults people for playing the game of “Survivor”, a game he purports to respect. Get a life Savage. And, while you’re at it, get over yourself.

Following the reward, Savage continues his anti-Stephen plans, informing St. Joe of the forming Protestant Reformation. Joe is naturally worried about this, since people are coming after him sooner than expected, but that has to wait as we head to our immunity challenge. Coming courtesy of “Survivor San Juan del Sur” (told you we’d be seeing weird parallels before too long), this challenge has people balancing a ball on a disk that is suspended between two ropes. Last person with a ball left on the disk wins. I wasn’t a fan of it then, and I’m not a fan of it now. It’s another boring ball-and-disk endurance challenge, and not even a tough one. Where other endurance challenges go out of their way to make things uncomfortable, this is just standing there, keeping tension on ropes. Not remotely exciting, and not a good challenge.

To this challenge’s credit, though, it does have some fun moments. Props must be given to Kimmi for a number of spectacular saves she has, before falling out in the second phase. Also, when Savage drops out, he shows himself to be the epitome of maturity by giving the ball the finger. Keith won this challenge when it was last played, and appropriately enough it comes down to a battle between himself and challenge wizard St. Joe. In the end, even Keith cannot overcome the will of the lord, and St. Joe makes himself immune once again. And now I quake in my pants, since the only other target we’re presented with is Stephen, and his going after Kass would be a 1-2 punch for me. Similar to “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, when Josh and Jeremy left one right after the other. Granted, this season has other people I actually like, unlike “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, but it would still hurt.

Back at camp, Joe sets the “Vote out Stephen” plan into full swing, even informing Kelley (who by extension informs Abi-Maria and Ciera) that the plan is to go against Stephen tonight. Naturally, the women just accept this gracefully, since it means they aren’t going tonight. To seal the deal, Savage gathers his minions around him, and discusses with them the possibility of getting Stephen out. It seems, though, that Stephen is not as much of a goober as this season has led us to believe, as both Spencer and Jeremy come to Stephen’s defense, saying that he’s just talking, and that the women are bigger threats right now. To his credit, Savage says that while he doesn’t trust Stephen, he’ll go with the group consensus, which seems to be get rid of one of the women, presumably Ciera. Joe goes back and informs said women, and Kelley starts talking about potentially playing her idol, though I don’t see why. Granted, I’m not privy to everything that goes on out there, but due to how the vote was split last time, I’d say Ciera is more likely to go before you. Still, just to be safe, the three agree to vote together, debating whether to go for Stephen or Savage. This is really a no-brainer. You go for Savage. Stephen doesn’t have nearly as much stock with everyone else, and is much less of a threat overall. Plus, no Savage might send the dominant alliance into chaos. It’s not going to happen, though. Savage hasn’t had NEARLY enough screen time to merit getting voted for, and while there’s been some decent misdirection, it feels like Stephen is still the way to go.

A predictable vote doesn’t mean a boring Tribal Council, though! Getting rid of all pretense this time around, Kelley and Ciera throw out who the top four are (Savage, Jeremy, Tasha, and either Stephen or Joe), and rightly point out that that solid four leaves five other people on the bottom, who therefore have a reason to vote one of them out. Not to say that there aren’t good counters to this. Joe has a line about perception being reality on “Survivor”, which is apt, and Stephen points out that the frequency of tribe swaps this season, coupled with relationships from other seasons, means that the dynamics are different. All that said, though, their point is still valid. Regardless of how crazy the bonds are this season, there’s still going to be a top three or four or whatever number you choose. That needs to be broken for anyone else to win. Add to this a lot of eye-rolling, snarking, and a flipping of the bird from Kass (hopefully a tribute to her actions on “Survivor Cagayan” and not actually a mean-spirited gesture), and you’ve got a pretty great Tribal Council. Doesn’t quite match the enjoyment of the Jeff Varner Tribal Council, but it’s up there.

So we got to vote, and Kelley plays her idol. Well, that was somewhat unexpected. While it was brought up this episode, it wasn’t something that was emphasized, like idols usually are. I get it, though. You want to hide an idol play to make it all the more surprising for the audience, and the inevitable Stephen boot implied that such a thing might happen. Also, it’s good that Kelley did that because, well, everyone voted for her. Not Abi-Maria or Ciera, of course, but everyone else.

Now we get the departure of… SAVAGE? Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic, but much like the Jeremy boot on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, it feels a bit out of left field. Savage’s name came up once, and most of the episode was the Stephen-Joe-Three Women show. Unlike Jeremy’s boot, however, I’m more ok with the Savage boot being kept in the dark for the audience for a few reasons. First off, while Jeremy’s boot was due to organizing an alliance we didn’t see, Savage’s boot was due to an idol play. This means foreshadowing has to be limited somewhat, to keep the idol play a secret, and also that we didn’t miss out on vital strategy conversations. The other reason is that, where Jeremy was the one bastion of strategy left of “Survivor San Juan del Sur” when he was evicted, here there are other people to like, and Savage was a pretty poor player.

In case you can’t tell, I’m not sorry at all to see Savage go. He pretty well deserved it, in my mind. Apart form my problems with his philosophy towards playing the game, he really wasn’t playing it well for me. For your second chance, you have to be willing to change up SOMETHING about your game to make sure you can win. Savage really didn’t. You look at “Survivor Pearl Islands” and he played pretty much exactly the same game, only there he was an underdog and so more sympathetic. Plus, maybe this eviction will take his ego down a few notches and show him that being the overt leader is NOT a good way to win “Survivor”, nor that he in any way “deserves” it.

And how does Savage go out? The classiest way possible, of course! He gives everyone the finger. Not since Jonny Fairplay (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) have we had so many middle fingers shown in an episode.

Definitely an exciting last third, but sad to say this breaks the streak of good episodes. Not that this one was awful, but at best, I can only call it “ok”. the trouble is that when you pack all the best stuff into the last third of the episode, the first two thirds just feels wasted, devoted more to Keith being his usual “charming” self and similar matters rather than anything of substance.

Exciting finish, but the beginning needs work. Perhaps next week can do better.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.