Zygon Tribe, getting your first look at the new Dalek Tribe. Sek voted out at the last Tribal Council. Now then, let’s get to today’s reward challenge. For today’s challenge you will swim out into the North Sea, retrieving bags of puzzle pieces. You will then assemble them into a functional TARDIS. First person to assemble their TARDIS and travel five minutes into the future wins reward. Want to know what you’re playing for? Of course you do. The winning tribe will FEAST on sweets. The things your body has been CRAVING since you got out here. Fish sticks and custard. Jammy Dodgers. Jelly Babies. In addition, for one lucky member of the winning tribe, a clue to the Sonic Immunity Idol. Worth playing for? Good, then decide who’s swimming, and we’ll get started.
Sorry, but this is the world we live in now. The time stream has been messed with, and we’re stuck with his. Hopefully a mashup of “Survivor” and “Doctor Who” won’t be as twist heavy as regular “Survivor”, and I can’t even finish typing that sentence without cracking up. Of COURSE twists will abound in a mashup of these two shows.
Also, Erika wears a fez now. Fezzes are cool.
Getting into the episode proper, we get something we haven’t seen in a while: The “Previously On” segment! Yes, Probst doesn’t actually narrate the thing, but it keeps the spirit of it. Unfortunately, that spirit is just as advantage-obsessed as the rest of the show, since reminding us who has what takes up nearly all the time, with the only other bit being the alliance between Shan, Liana, Deshawn, and Danny. That bit is good, but do you think, if you need a minute-long recap to remember what your advantages are and who has them, you have maybe, I don’t know, TOO MANY ADVANTAGES?
Anyway, we get through that painful but necessary bit, only to come to a painful and unnecessary bit. Erika talks about finding the strength within herself to keep going after her time on Exile Island, yada, yada, yada. Look, I like Erika, and I’m glad we’re getting more content from her. But we got this content just as well last episode, and it worked better there. It doesn’t help matters that they try and build up Erika’s decision about rewriting history when we all know what she’s going to pick. Erika may have been relatively invisible up to this point, but she’s not a moron. We know she’s going to make the smart decision here. No need to spend 4 minutes building it up. Honestly, you could cut out the first segment of this episode, and nothing would really be missed.
I was going to give Probst flak for revealing Erika’s decision to the tribe, but then there wouldn’t really be any way for Erika to hide what she’d done plausibly, so I suppose he’s not cutting off her lying options. With her and the yellow team now immune, our challenge is now played by Naseer, Deshawn, Danny, Sydney, Ricard, and Evvie. The challenge itself is a solid one. Hailing originally from “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, this challenge as people stack blocks three high, then place a flag in the center. The catch? You can only use your feet. Tricky, visually interesting, hard to have an inherent advantage in, and most important, not another bloody endurance challenge? Yeah, I can get behind this one.
We find that this is one of the few challenges Naseer CAN’T solo, as we mostly have a four-way-race between Sydney, Evvie, Ricard, and Deshawn. After a couple of close calls from Evvie and Sydney, Ricard pulls it out, leaving very few singletons left available to vote for. Unsurprisingly, with Luvu wanting to stick together and everyone else immune, the target quickly falls on Evvie. Most everyone is on board with this. Even Deshawn, despite their bond on “Shipwheel Island”, is willing to make the sacrifice.
The only one who shows any reluctance is Liana. Understandable, since the pair were aligned, and the old Yase has a strong bond. Oddly, though, the bond of the new alliance with Danny, Deshawn, and Shan, and in particular her bond with Shan are overpowering, and Liana is willing to sacrifice Evvie for her own game. Everyone tries to soften the blow by saying she can take vengeance on Xander by stealing his idol to do so.
But will Xander still have his idol? In a twist of irony, the “Knowledge is Power” advantage is being undone by too much knowledge of it. The “Beware Advantage” pretty much had to be made public, but Shan’s slip-up in front of Tiffany has been her undoing. Tiffany, mad, tells Evvie about the advantage and how it works. Evvie, in turn, tells Xander, meaning now they can plan to counteract it. Sure enough, they plan to let someone else hold onto the idol, so that Liana can’t ask the right person to steal it from. A pretty brilliant plan, and a great way to counteract the advantage. If only the plan stays under wraps…
And there goes Xander spilling the beans to Danny. Sigh. Even when you’re smart, Xander, you’re dumb.
Fortunately, there’s still hope. Sure enough, this information gets back to Liana, and she goes to confront her old tribe. She’s ODDLY INSISTENT on knowing who’s going to be holding the idol, which they assure her will be Xander. Way to not be obvious, Xander. Still, alternate targets are needed, and we settle on two. The old Yase would prefer Deshawn, seeing as he’s a threat. Meanwhile, the old Luvu would prefer Sydney, since she’s outside the alliance of four highlighted at the beginning. Never saw that coming.
And of course the two alternates are the only two people left on my draft team. Of course they are.
We have a 25 minute Tribal tonight, and I’ll grant that it’s needed, but I’ll also grant that, as we’ll soon see, production really are to blame for the length of this Tribal. There’s little need to talk about the maneuvering at Tribal, since it’s not really the focus, though I must hold special ire for PROBST, of all people, having the gall to say that the game is still ultimately about relationships. I mean, it is. Look at the Shan/Liana connection if you need evidence of that. But for PROBST, the man who seems to be doing EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to make the game less about relationships, and more about advantages, is beyond the pale for me.
But now, we come to the part of Tribal Council that sends everyone scrambling. At first, Xander seems to have, once again, made a major gaffe, declaring that he has an idol, and therefore Evvie is safe. Liana, believing him to truly be that stupid, uses her “Knowledge is Power” advantage for his idol. Unfortunately for her, Xander is not that stupid (or, at a minimum, backed up by and willing to listen to people who aren’t that stupid). His idol? Fake. In another effective use of flashbacks, we see them plan to give Xander’s advantages to Tiffany, since she’s least likely to be advantage’d by Liana. The plan works, and everyone gets to scrambling, which takes the form of whispering, but only serves to reaffirm that Deshawn and Sydney are the alternate targets.
Before I get into what I’m about to say, let me preface it by saying this was great tv. Most of this episode, Tribal Council included, is a long-winded way to get to a pretty simple point, but man, does this Tribal deliver! Mystery! Intrigue! Excitement! Smart gameplay and dumb gameplay in just the right amounts to provide balance and character! The makings of a great episode ending!
And yet… I come back to the point I made during “Survivor Game Changers” about the inherent folly of manufacturing drama with advantages. It feels hollow. Yes, this episode was exciting, and yes, the advantages were used effectively by the players to create drama. But it feels manufactured, rather than organic, and it’s just always going to be inferior to the real thing. Granted, this is a bit harsh, as things like the fake idol bluff have little to nothing to do with the advantages, but overall, while I did enjoy this part of the episode, it just felt, well, hollow. Fun, but not an organic fun.
The whispering in particular really comes to nothing, since again it’s just reiterating what the dynamics at camp showed in particular. But then, the votes come, and we get a few more surprises. All throughout the episode, Probst has been reminding us how the “Shot in the Dark” works, not at all subtle foreshadowing for the fact that someone would take the shot. That someone is Sydney, and understandably so. She’s the one person targeted who has no sort of other idol or advantage for protection, so worth it to take the shot. All for naught, as she’s not safe, but still, a worthy move.
More head-scratching, however, is Xander insisting that Evvie not have an idol played on her, as she’s now safe due to the scrambling. Evvie, being smarter, is not so sure, and rightly so. For all the scrambling, it’s still fair to assume that the opposing alliance enacted the “Erik Reichenbach Plan”. No, not giving up individual immunity to Natalie, the one from “Survivor Caramoan”! Flushing the idols of the minority alliance by still voting for the initial target. Evvie, in fact, nearly goes home, and it would all have been due to Xander’s stupidity. I repeat: Even when you’re smart, Xander, you’re dumb.
But what of our third target, Mr. Deshawn? He’s not dumb. Surely he has a plan to keep himself safe! He does, in fact. If you think WAAAY back to Episode 2, you’ll remember Deshawn earned an extra vote. He just hasn’t got it yet because he’s only now going to Tribal Council. Deshawn, ever loyal, casts a vote on Evvie, but also throws one on Sydney, in case Evvie plays her idol. She doesn’t get an idol play, but unfortunately, no one counted on Sydney giving up her vote for the Shot in the Dark. Thus, between the Yase votes, the rogue votes, and Deshawn, Sydney goes home 5-4-3. While this does mean my draft team is down to one person, I’m still overall not that sorry to see Sydney go. She was arrogant, full of herself, and while that’s all fine and good, it’s just not a character type I really like having on my screen for long periods of time. See also, Hantz, Russell.
I can’t deny the episode was fun. Definitely one of the better episodes of the season. And with wanting to show all the twists and turns, I get why they needed two hours on one vote. Then again, there’s little reason they couldn’t have made a two-hour episode instead (or even an hour and a half, and cut down a bit of the redundant strategizing), or better yet, forego the Time Travel Advantage and simplify things that way. Again, fun, but manufactured fun. Fine enough, but I know this season can do better.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 