Idol Speculation: “Survivor Game Changers” Episode 10: ANOTHER F*CKING OBSTACLE COURSE!

Let’s be real here: Coming in, no one expected much of anything from this season. People were upset about a number of the casting choices, and predicted that this season would go down unfortunate avenues with regards to everyone’s favorites. Matters weren’t helped when the season often DID go down those avenues, with only Cirie and Aubry remaining out of those that people really wanted to see again. Plus, then we had unexpected upheavals that left bad tastes in our mouths, notably the bullshit twist that eliminated Malcolm, and the unpleasantness that was Jeff Varner’s exit. Even though the last few episodes post-merge have been alright, they’re definitely not the stuff of “Survivor” legend. I bring this up, not because this episode was spectacular in and of itself, but because this episode did show that even a season that’s as much of a misfire as this one is can still show some skill. This episode did what few can do: It took a boring and predictable plotline that most everyone saw coming, and managed to make it engaging and unpredictable. Before we can get to that, though, it’s time for another…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

I think this might be a record. We have not one, not two, but THREE points from last episode that I neglected to discuss. Two of them are kind of understandable, for reasons I’ll get to shortly, but one of them there’s really no excuse for. During the strategy talk of last episode, there was a brief scene in which Tai and Troyzan agreed to look out for each other. Nothing much would come of this, were it not for the irony that Tai and Troyzan, between them, have THREE idols, meaning that if they were willing to trust one another, they could easily take control. Sadly, the pair do not. I understand why. Without knowing about the other’s idol, and thereby having the potential protection of mutually-assured destruction, it’s a big risk, but as a backseat quarterback, they’d ultimately be more successful, if only they could trust. And THIS is the sort of insight that keeps “Survivor” interesting after all these years.

As to how I justify missing the two other points? Well, I normally stop talking about the episode after the vote happens, and so it would make sense to end my blog there. Barring, of course, that some reaction after the episode merits talking about, and this past episode had just that. Firstly, there was an exchange from the jury wherein Hali referred to those perpetrating the Zeke blindside as “Game Changers”, while Debbie instead preferred to call them “idiots”. There’s much debate as to which interpretation is correct, but only time will tell. Despite Aubry being included in that decision, I’m inclined to go more with Debbie’s interpretation, for the reasons I gave last blog about Zeke’s blindside potentially being a vote too soon. What I find more interesting, though, is the differing philosophies between the twosome that this shows. Hali fully buys into the hype for this season, and probably believes in shouting “BIG MOVES!” as well. She’s looking more at the strategic game. Debbie, on the other hand, takes things more than a little personally, and gets very caught up in that aspect of the game, hence her comments here. I can’t even BEGIN to speculate on how this may play out later in the game, but suffice to say, it provides some fun insight.

Our big story, though, is Michaela, who openly cried after voting off of Zeke. At this point, the reasons behind it have been speculated and analyzed to death, so I feel no inclination to put my oar in the water on this subject. What this DOES do is support my theory that Michaela was MADE to play “Survivor”… in the pre-Rob Cesternino era. I mentioned during “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X.” that Michaela represented a return to older character archetypes, when loyalty, wilderness survival, and challenge ability were what mattered most. Wilderness survival may not be exactly her thing, but I defy you to tell me Michaela isn’t focussed on the other two. In a lot of ways, she’s a female Rupert (“Survivor Pearl Islands”), and so would have fit in during the early days. The trouble is Michaela was simply born too late. Almost 15 years have passed since “Survivor The Amazon”, and the game has moved away from favoring people with that character type. Hence, Michaela’s doom, despite what this episode would indicate. Wearing her emotions on her sleeve, and being upset at voting out a friend? Common in the early days of the show, and not unheard of in this era, but much less common.

Now that we can finally discuss the episode proper, we see that talking is NOT the order of the day here. Tai is probably the most shell-shocked, since not only was he on the wrong side of the numbers, but most of his own ALLIANCE voted against him. He quite politely and calmly asks if they can talk about the reasoning behind the vote, a kind and diplomatic gesture that Andrea basically returns with a big “Eff you!” and shuts down. Tai being Tai, he’s not overly upset about this, but it seems like an unnecessary bridge burn from Andrea.

We then see that Andrea is not opposed to talking to people, just Tai. Astutely realizing that Michaela is probably the person most in need of a pick-me-up after the vote, Andrea tries to console her and bring her back into the alliance. Michaela PLAYS like she’s ok with it, but this being Michaela, she’s not ok with it. You can tell by the glare she shoots over Andrea’s shoulder in one of the better shots of the episode. Yeah, maybe should have considered THAT aspect of the Zeke vote, guys!

The next morning, we get Sierra still scrambling, trying to rebuild that bond with Sarah. To this end, Sierra tells Sarah about the legacy advantage, describing it as an immunity idol that can only be used at the final six. Now, I’m not normally one to advocate telling huge whoppers about the power of an advantage, since they’re so easily seen through, but here, I don’t see why Sierra DIDN’T play it up, make it out to be a Super-Idol or something. Zeke, the ONLY person who could contradict your story, is gone, so there’s really no way for anyone left in the game to call your bluff! That being said, how Sierra frames it still makes it powerful, and sharing secrets like this CAN be a good way to build a bond, especially since Sierra implies that she’ll share the benefits of the advantage with Sarah without ever actually PROMISING anything. Had Sierra stopped there, she would have at worst done nothing and at best gained a potentially ally on the inside to help her flip the numbers. This being Sierra, however, she goes and screws it up by also mentioning the “Will” part of the legacy advantage. No, not the part where Will Wahl (“Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X.”) takes over as host from Probst, but the part where if she’s voted out with the advantage she gets to give it to someone. If there was ever an incentive to blindside you, Sierra, you’ve just given it to Sarah. Of course, Sarah could be a moron and assume that this ALSO builds trust with Sierra, and you see where I’m going with this.

In the course of the conversation, Sierra mentions a willingness to blindside Brad, which leads to Cirie and Andrea talking about eliminating Brad, culminating in Andrea swearing that Brad will be the one to go. For those with the betting still open, you can safely stake the farm on the fact that Brad Culpepper will NOT be the latest evictee.

As promised, we now get to our loved one’s challenge. It’s sweet, it’s sappy, it’s the human element to the show that I have so defended over the years, and this one is saccharine, but no different from most other ones. So, time to break with tradition and be snarky and cynical about this particular loved ones challenge. As I’ve said before, I’m in that section of people who feel that showing emotion on “Survivor” is not a sign of weakness, particularly at the loved one’s challenge. I’m also particularly inclined to forgive it in cases where people really have missed major life events; stuff they can’t get back, like Cirie missing her son’s graduation. All that being said, I feel like Sarah falling to her knees even BEFORE meeting her loved one is a bit much. When you see them, fine, and I do understand that Sarah is also missing out on important stuff, in this case the early years of parenthood, or as it is also known, hell. But that display was so over the top, and so early on, that I can’t help but feel that it IS a bit of a weak spot for her.

To add onto the weirdness, Probst for some reason this time around gets into the habit of asking the contestants who they think came to visit them. Gee, Probst, it’s not like they filled out an application where they LISTED who they wanted to come. There’s NO WAY they’d have any idea who’d be there for them! Actually, having all the loved ones be previous contestants would have been kind of fun, but imagine if someone had guessed wrong. What would Probst have said? “No, sorry, your loved one couldn’t make it, so instead, we decided to bring back Russell Hantz from ‘Survivor Samoa’, because we haven’t pissed off enough of the fans.

Pontificating aside, we get introduced to Sarah’s husband, who assures her that their kid, Knox, is doing fine. Andrea comes next, meeting up with her mom… Scout from “Survivor Vanuatu”! No, no, but I thought it was for a second. Andrea and her mom get a nice little moment reminiscing about the unfortunate loss of Andrea’s sister, which is emotional, but would have been more so if we had heard anything about her BEFORE this. Aubry then reunites with her sister, who I swear is the result of a weird transporter accident involving Aubry and Debbie Wanner. Sierra gets to see her dad again, which amounts to nothing, and then we get to meet Michaela’s mom. Ok, I’m a casual fan of Michaela, but I LOVE her mom! She’s so charming in her demeanor, and yet she’s got some bark to her. Note how she snapped Michaela back into place when she was getting frustrated. Hot damn, why couldn’t SHE have been on the show? This is followed by the uneventful reunion between Troyzan and his brother, and then Tai and his partner, Mark the Chicken! No, actually it’s just Mark, and I’ve got to say, Tai’s done really well for himself. Granted, Mark is no Adonis, but he’s pretty good-looking. Consider yourself lucky, Tai! Then we come to Brad, and honestly, I can’t remember who he brought in. She seemed like a neat lady, though. Last is the aforementioned Cirie reunion with her son, which was probably the most genuinely emotion, save possibly for Sarah’s.

We find out that the contestants are playing for barbecue time with their loved ones. Naturally, with stakes (and steaks) like that, production has pulled out all the stops in creation a no-holds-barred beat-down of a one-of-a-kind individual challenge, ensuring the maximum level of competition and drama. Or, you know, they could do ANOTHER damn team obstacle course. I’m sure THAT would in no way be disappointing.

We don’t even get exciting misdirection as to who’s going to win. One team consists of Brad, Andrea, and Aubry, in terms of physical challenges, arguably the best threesome left in the game. You could argue for Michaela or Sierra in one of those spots, probably over Aubry, but those three are still formidable, and when Cirie is on one other team, and Tai on the third, you know you’re sunk.

Thankfully, the team DOES get to pick two pairs of loved ones to come with them, and here’s where there might be interesting drama. Since Aubry and Andrea appear to be allies, I’ll be analyzing the choices from their perspective. Gotta say, I can’t really fault them. When it comes to choosing people for the family reward challenge, you want to take people who are in your alliance, either as swing votes or as power players, but also people who had the biggest emotional moments, both as an alibi for why you picked them, and so you don’t look like a heartless bastard. Aubry and Andrea choose wisely under these criteria, picking first Cirie, a power player, and Sarah, a potential swing vote, and both of whom had the biggest emotional moments. Some might argue that, given how visibly pissed Michaela was at losing the challenge, she ought to have been taken to keep the other swing vote happy, but I’d argue that Cirie is also a potential defect danger is she isn’t pandered too somewhat. Plus, while I like Michaela’s mom a lot, there wasn’t as much emotion there as there was with Cirie, making Cirie a safe play. If I were to nitpick, I might have picked Sarah first, just in case Probst didn’t say to take the second pair, on the grounds that Sarah and her vote steal most need to be kept happy at this point, but I can’t really complain.

That neat lady that Brad brought with him also notes Michaela’s frustration, and as Brad’s currently out of the numbers, she encourages him to go and make friends with her, to hopefully get back the numbers. Brad may not be necessary, however, as Michaela and Tai find THEIR missing Craigslist connection, much as Aubry and Tai did this time last year. Michaela notes that she and Tai are on the bottom of their respective alliances, the former due to not getting picked, the latter due to getting votes, and agree to stick together. They bring in our other losers, Troyzan and Sierra, with Brad as a presumed proxy. They unsurprisingly agree that Andrea is too much of a threat, and decide to go for her. This is the point in the episode where I start to question if Michaela is quite as old-school as she lets on. True, the past evidence still stands, but this is upper class thinking. Michaela correctly realizes she’s on the bottom of her current alliance, and decides to flip the script, hoping for something better. Tai isn’t flipping the script as much, but at this point, any ally is a good ally for him. Unfortunately, I don’t see either of them faring any better under the Brad-Sierra regime than the Andrea-Cirie-Aubry regime, but with that said, fragmenting as many alliances as possible is good if you’re on the bottom, since it means people may need to take you to the end out of sheer necessity of numbers if you do it enough times.

For all Probst’s protestations that this is an original challenge, I see it as a variation on the final immunity challenge from “Survivor Micronesia”. Basically everyone will use pole to hold up a buoy, with the last person holding their buoy as the winner. It’s scaled up from the “Survivor Micronesia” challenge, though it does lose the “ever-lengthening pole” aspect. Since bigger does not always mean better, I’m inclined to prefer the original.

In a nice twist, someone who was targeted actually wins. Brad pulls out his victory, which is only hampered by the obvious foreshadowing of Andrea targeting him at the top of the episode. The majority quickly regroups and unsurprisingly decides to target Sierra, with the need to break up the Brad-Sierra pairing still tantamount. Michaela busts out her acting chops again, agreeing to go with the alliance to their faces. After conferring with Tai, however, they agree that Andrea must go, which as stated before is a good move. Things seem set in stone, but when Sarah grows brain cells, all bets are off. Sarah, rather than be upset at the possibility of a potentially ally being voted off, realizes that this is a chance to get HER hands on the legacy advantage. You know, that thing that she should have thought of initially? The tricky part, though, is how to do it without pissing off Sierra. Frankly, I don’t see how it can happen. Either Sarah is going to have to use her vote steal, in which case Sierra will KNOW something’s up, or Sarah will have to convince Michaela to flip. True, this might make Sierra more mad at Michaela than Sarah, but Sarah would still be implicated, and unless Sierra is BLIND, she’d know that Sarah probably betrayed her, since the only way for this to work as a blindside is for Sarah to swear that she’s with Sierra. Better to stick with the Andrea vote now, and wait for a more opportune moment. Plus, this is potentially the last chance to break up that threesome.

While I can’t say this is the most memorable Tribal Council overall, I CAN say that it’s probably the best one from this season that doesn’t have some unpleasant connotation attached to it. There’s a lot of sound strategic talk, with Andrea articulating the decision of who to bring on reward, Aubry talking about the buildup of little annoyances versus big annoyances, and both Andrea and Sierra subtly politicking for the other by talking generally about who they talked to, and pleading for loyalty. As per usual, though, Michaela gets the zinger, talking about being loyal to the “we” until it becomes a “me”. Why wasn’t THIS the episode title?

There’s also the unpredictability here, and once again, I’d say the wrong decision is made. Sierra goes home, thereby further solidifying the power of the overall more dangerous Andrea-Cirie-Aubry threesome. Still, can’t say I’m too sorry to see Sierra go. Out of all the people case, she was one of the ones I most considered an insult to actual good returnees, and she seemed like she was getting poised for a potential win, so I’m glad that didn’t come to pass. We got some decent strategy out of her, but she’s not one of the greats, and I don’t think we’re missing much from her absence. Of course, at this point, the only people I WOULD be upset to see go would be Aubry, Michaela, and possibly Cirie.

Not one for the record books and maybe not as good as the other merge episodes, but still a decent one nonetheless. With a double-boot episode looming, we’re in for some chaos, Cirie or no Cirie.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Game Changers” Episode 6: Losing Varnish

You just couldn’t resist the siren song of “Survivor”, could you Varner? In the world of “Survivor”, you were the proverbial rock star. Not to say that you rocked the game or anything, but in the “Die young and leave a beautiful corpse.” sense. Sure, you never made it all that far, but you were remembered as smart and witty. Many people liked you. After tonight, I’m not sure you can say that.

But let’s take this from the top, shall we, since Varner’s arrival back at camp is actually handled pretty well. As you’d expect, after Tai calling out Ozzy like that at the last Tribal Council, there’s some fallout. Ozzy is nervous, and everyone’s on edge. Except for Debbie, because she didn’t really have to participate. She says that that Tribal Council was more stressful than all of her time on Exile Island, which I can’t really disagree with her on, given how luxurious that Exile Island was. Not that her castmates know, of course. Debbie goes on and lies about how horrible Exile Island was, a move that I can’t fault TOO much. While a hard time on Exile Island, and potentially overcoming that “obstacle” might win you some brownie points, and do some resume building for the jury, it’s probably not a make-or-break thing. Plus, it’s a hard lie to get caught in. Debbie, as a fan of the show, should have seen enough of Exile Island to describe it accurately enough to make it all believable, and so long as no one ELSE gets sent to Exile Island, you can’t be contradicted. But therein lies why, were I in Debbie’s position, I would NOT lie about Exile Island. Downplay it, sure. Definitely don’t mention the extra vote advantage. But the gain from saying you survived a hardship is minimal at best, and SHOULD the show throw a curveball and send someone else to Exile Island, you’re screwed. Better to cover most of your bases. As I say, I’m not sure there’s a “wrong” choice here, and I can’t fault Debbie for the move very much. Probably not what I would have done, though.

On to Varner, though. If Aubry had a textbook example of how to handle being on the losing side of the vote last episode, then Varner has studied that textbook thoroughly. He plays things up well, taking it on the chin, and strategizing calmly with Zeke, betraying only the slightest hint of annoyance at the outcome, which is understandable. For his part, Zeke folds like the proverbial house of cards, stating that there will be no more secrets between himself and Varner, and that he’d like to take Varner as far as he could, a move that makes sense for both of them. It’s clear that the merge is going to come down to which faction of the original Nuku can gather more members, including the now pretty much adrift Mana members. While such a close bond between Zeke and Varner makes them targets, at a time in the game where one or two loyal votes can be the difference between salvation and destruction, Varner’s a good guy to have. As for Varner? With his one really close ally gone, ANY alliance is a good alliance for him.

Moving on to our average reward challenge, we find that contestants first untangle ropes from around a maypole to release a key. Then tribe members untie a series of boards to use to build a ladder up to a bag of balls. After releasing said bag of balls, the whole tribe goes up and over the ladder and through a net crawl to the end of the course, where a catapult awaits to launch said balls (with help from a tribe member) into nets on a wall, with the first tribe to land five balls in separate nets wins a reward of pizza and soda. This is yet another derivative obstacle course, drawing mainly from “Survivor South Pacific” and “Survivor San Juan del Sur”. Clearly, we’re drawing from the winner’s pool here. But actually, I’m kind of ok with this challenge, since it combines elements we don’t often see together, and does a couple of things uniquely that makes it cool. The two big selling points are the ladder and the catapult. Puzzle ladders are nothing new on “Survivor”, but they’re usually based on size or shape of the rungs. Here, any piece could fit anywhere, but the trick is finding that anywhere. Rather than having the rungs be parallel to the ground, as they usually are, this one has them go at odd angles, making things seem trickier than originally intended, and giving the ladder a cool look. The catapult, in contrast, is not changed in mechanism, but in size. Rather than being a one-leg stomp, like the “Survivor San Juan del Sur” version, this one all but requires the shooting tribe member to jump wholly onto it. And if you have to scale one way or the other, scaling UP is always a plus. I doubt this will go down as one of the great challenges of all time, but it’s not bad as challenges go.

Also, Probst, no beer? You do realize Will Wahl (“Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”) isn’t on this season, right? All these people are over age.

Well, as this challenge has no puzzle, the team with Ozzy wins, what a shock. With no Sandra dragging them down, they actually do pretty well. They walk away with pizza, while Mana walks away dejected. This leads to the preview-promised emotional moment at Mana, which would be very easy to decry as them being “weak”. After all, pizza is pizza. Yeah, it’s nice (even if this particular pizza did look to be of poor quality), but it’s not the be-all end-all. However, as Cirie rightly points out, “Survivor” is not an easy game to play. It wears you down, and despite everyone on Mana still being in a relatively good position, right now it’s just too much. Now, it would be easy to dismiss some people (say, for example, Aubry) as just being an overly-emotional, but could you describe Cirie as overly emotional? Sierra? Brad “Fuck You” Culpepper? No, this is clearly a real emotional moment for the tribe, ruined only slightly by Brad YET AGAIN bringing it around to Monica.

For all my snark, though, it is appropriate to bring up Monica in this scenario. As Aubry frames it, a lot of the emotion was just finally having a shared experience with some people. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but “Survivor” is STRESSFUL! Apart from the physical toll, there’s the fact that you really can’t trust anyone, at least until you’re voted out. While I can’t give a firm clinical diagnosis, a lot of it looks like PTSD in terms of symptoms, particularly with everyone describing how their friends said they’ve changed. Thus, since Monica went on “Survivor” before Brad, it would get emotional for him to talk about that temporary disconnect. Despite the fact that Mana (spoiler alert) doesn’t go to Tribal Council, I would call this the highlight of the episode. It all felt so raw and real, and did a great job of humanizing just about everyone on the tribe.

Of course, this is all emotional connection, and as you’ll recall this is where Aubry shines. Sure enough, in a confessional she turns things back around to strategy, going down the beach with Brad to talk about their connection. Cirie does a similar maneuver (though with less strategic overtones, although they were definitely there), and it seems like Brad has found his group to bond with himself, Troyzan, and Sierra. I’d be a bit concerned for him, bringing along Cirie and Aubry, since they’re arguably the two best strategists left in the game at this point, and therefore a threat, but at this point, Brad needs to take what he can get. Plus, he, Troyzan, and Sierra outnumber Cirie and Aubry, so that’s a plus. Or, you know, maybe I’m just excited that Aubry seems to FINALLY be getting some traction in this game.

Nuku, meanwhile, is living it up fat and happy, cutting up pizza’s with a machete. Not sure why, but that thought just makes me laugh. Beneath the veneer of niceness, though, Varner knows that there’s still a target on him, and he makes “Get Ozzy out” overtures to a number of people, thus setting the stage for our immunity challenge.

Our immunity challenge is sadly nothing special. Four tribe members pull a raft to a series of markers, untying buoys at each marker. Once all the buoys are retrieved, the three remaining tribe members put the buoys on a pole in order to spell a word (“metamorphosis”) to win immunity. A small-scale, standard challenge that I really can’t get behind, made only slightly better by the puzzle solution being a really difficult word. And while I do applaud that difficulty, I have to ask: “metamorphosis”. Really? I mean, I know you want these things to be difficult, but you want them to at least relate in SOME WAY to the show. Yes, I know they tried to do that at Tribal Council, but it was retroactive and forced, so it doesn’t count. Still, it at least makes the challenge stand out a little, which it desperately needed.

I’ve been a proponent of the misdirection on this season, but man, they REALLY dropped the ball on this one. Leaving out the “scenes at Nuku not in the preview means Nuku looses” angle, we’ve had nebulous strategy at best from Mana, while Nuku’s dynamics have got in-depth analysis. Even an early lead by Nuku can’t really make things interesting, since with a puzzle this complicated, we KNOW that Mana can easily catch up.

Both tribes do a good job thinking outside the box. They try all sorts of different shipwreck-themed words. Rodney from “Survivor Worlds Apart” even shows up to suggest “A Reward that will Fix Wishin’”. The game is over, though, when Hali comes up with the idea for the “Meta” part, and the rest just falls into place for Mana. So, naturally, Varner starts to scramble. Taking a leaf from Colby Donaldson’s playbook from “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”, he states what everyone is thinking, and then leaves them to strategize. Debbie, of course, is the most vocal proponent of getting rid of Varner. Frankly, if I were Debbie, I’d be keeping my mouth shut and thanking my lucky stars I didn’t become a target, but of course, I’m not Debbie. Sarah and Andrea aren’t so keen on the idea, since they sense an impending merge and therefore want Ozzy gone, but Zeke of all people says they need to keep Ozzy around, explaining in confessional that Ozzy is a shield. As to which school of thought is correct, as per usual, it depends on who you are. For the tribe as a whole, the answer is clearly Ozzy. His loyalty, though not tested very much, is more tested than Varner’s. Plus, you’re only ASSUMING there’s a merge. Should there not be, and you vote out Ozzy, you’re screwed. The kicker here is that Zeke, one of the main advocates for keeping Ozzy, is one of the few people for whom it would make SENSE to vote out Ozzy. Clearly he and Ozzy have a close alliance, and Zeke does say he wants Ozzy as a meat shield, but what Zeke fails to realize is that he needs STRATEGIC meat shields not PHYSICAL meat shields. No one is praising Zeke’s challenge ability beyond normal measures, but EVERYONE recognizes him as at least a decent strategist. Varner, while no genius, fits the “strategic meat shield” mold far better than Ozzy, and is just overall more likely to be a loyal ally to Zeke.

Zeke may have to turn in his genius card, though, as his fondness for Varner has him inform Varner that it’s pretty much a done deal. Not bad in and of itself, but Zeke then mentions that the girls will lie to him to make him feel comfortable. I STILL can’t fathom the reason why Zeke would do this, since there’s nothing to be gained by it, and as we see, Varner uses it as ammunition.

Varner brings this information to the girls, specifically Andrea and Sarah, pointing out how Zeke is calling them out for lying, making him look like the good guy int he process. Realizing that sometimes less is more, Varner leads the girls to stew, and BOY are they angry. Their actions based on that anger, though, vary. Andrea, while definitely pissed, generally keeps a level head and suggests sticking to the plan, while Sarah is annoyed and wants to flip the script. Whether to Ozzy or Zeke is unclear, since no name is said, since Zeke is the implication. This is MUCH better misdirection than I thought we were going to get tonight. Ozzy vs. Varner? Yeah we’ve seen some of Ozzy, but not enough for me to really buy him as an option. But Zeke vs. Varner? Both are equally viable options, particularly after Zeke’s gaffe. I’m still of the belief that Varner goes home at this point, but there’s enough ambiguity there that Tribal Council should still be entertaining.

And entertaining it is. At least at first. Varner expresses confidence in his exit, which naturally makes Debbie nervous that he has something up his sleeve. Determined to prove her right, Varner explains what he’s been doing all day, and cleverly reiterates his point about Zeke being untrustworthy by throwing Andrea and Sarah under the bus.

You know, had Varner left it at that, he might have had a shot. He seemed to be getting in people’s heads, and his argument was well made. Win or lose, had he left it at that, and potentially saved himself tonight, Varner might have had a shot. But alas, Varner could not leave his reputation untarnished. He goes for the low blow.

In order to prove that Zeke is untrustworthy, Varner asks why Zeke hasn’t told anyone else he’s transgender.

As the show rightly did, I’m going to let that sink in for a moment.

Now, before we get into talking about the move itself, let me back up here a little bit, and talk about the whole “Zeke is transgender” thing in it’s entirety. If you’re a “Survivor” fan who frequents the fan websites, you’d probably think this is nothing new. Sometime around the merge of “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, word started circling around the internet that Zeke was actually transgender. I found these rumors myself, but didn’t comment on them for a few reasons. Initially, my reason for not doing so is that within the “Survivor” community, I’m sad to say, saying “thus-and-so is actually transgender” is often treated as a joke, speculation by assholes based on little more than physical appearance. People like Danielle DiLorenzo (“Survivor Exile Island”) and Trish Hegarty (“Survivor Cagayan”) have been suggested to be transgender based on their physical appearance, a practice I both find deplorable and irrelevant to the show. In the case of Zeke, however, there was a little more corroborating evidence, including an article about his transition from his time at Harvard. Still, with “Smith” a common last name, I wasn’t willing to talk about it on the blog, particularly since Zeke’s confessionals about his life centered more around his being gay and not his gender identity, so it seemed irrelevant to talk about. Plus, my thought process was that if he IS transgender, then either he hasn’t told CBS, or he’s asked CBS to not exploit that fact, and either way, it means he didn’t want that fact public knowledge, and so I would not talk about what I considered to be little better than a rumor.

That being said, Zeke is now officially declared transgender to the entire “Survivor” community, and so this milestone bears mentioning. Again, while I can’t say definitively that Zeke is the first transgender person to ever appear on “Survivor”, he is at least the first one where this fact was brought up in some meaningful way. And, I’ve got to say, I’m happy. “Survivor” so often stereotypes people in an effort to make the narrative of the season easier to follow, that I’m glad that Zeke’s gender identity is given a healthy, adult discussion, rather than played up as a big selling point of the season. Bear in mind that this is the show that thought that dividing tribes by RACE was a smart idea, so for them to not play this up as a gimmick/selling point of the season makes me very happy. Plus, more positive representation of an oft-neglected group of individuals. Yes, Zeke has had his dark moments, what with the taunting of David on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, but in general, and this season in particular, he’s been shown to be witty, fun, and strategically competent. Just your average good “Survivor” player who happens to be transgender. Overall, the sort of positive portrayal we need more of in the media.

Probst is no stranger to handling tough situations, and he handles this one with such grace as to remind you why HE’S the host of this show. At first, he just lets things play out. There’s the few seconds of silence, then the protests start breaking in. Pretty much everyone thinks this move was a low-blow by Varner, with Tai and Andrea in particular being the most vocal critics, point out that Varner had no right to “out” Zeke in this way. Varner tries to defend himself, slowly realizing what he’s done, and manages to make a hypocrite of himself in the process. While I sincerely believe Varner hadn’t thought through the implications of his move, and was truly mortified by it, his attempt at a defense is to say “I thought everybody already knew.” As Sarah rightly points out, though, if Varner thought everyone knew, then pointing out this fact about Zeke wouldn’t support his “Zeke is untrustworthy point.” Once Varner feels sufficiently guilty, Probst goes around asking other people their opinions of this. The consensus seems to be that Verner isn’t a TOTAL scumbag, but that this was a dick move, bringing something personal and non-strategic into the game. I am behind this 100%. Even if it was NECESSARY to get people to not trust Zeke (which I would argue it wasn’t), Varner does not have the right to disclose aspects of Zeke’s history for him. HE is the one who decides who he tells what to, not Varner. For that matter, given how scummy it makes Varner look, it’s a MAJOR strategic blunder. Through it all, though Probst handles everything with dignity and respect, throwing away over-the-top theatrics for a logical discussion of a serious issue. We even get some good emotion out of it, with Sarah breaking down about how little variety there is in the middle-of-Iowa town where she’s from, and how this is an eye-opener.

On that somewhat more cheerful note, we acknowledge that Varner is obviously the one to go, with Varner himself even seeming to accept it, breaking down about his actions in the after confessional. As I say, the smart move, both morally and strategically, for everyone present. I wouldn’t have been too sad to see Varner go, since I felt we got enough of his snark for the season to entertain us, but after his actions at this Tribal Council, I’m REALLY not sorry. Again I don’t want to consider him a COMPLETE scumbag, since his remorse does seem genuine, but after that move, I can’t really have too much sympathy.

While parts of the episode were handled well, and it’s nowhere NEAR as bad as the Malcolm boot episode, this one is still pretty bad. Horrible misdirection, challenges that were ok at best, and a cringe-worthy Tribal Council. There’s definitely some redemptive value here. The scene at Mana was nice. We got some good, genuine emotion. And I want to again give props to the “Survivor” team as a whole, and Probst in particular, for handling that Tribal Council with maturity and grace. On the whole, though, this episode falls into the category of Brandon Hantz’s “I FEED MYSELF!” rant from “Survivor Caramoan”: memorable, but uncomfortable for all the wrong reasons.

See you at the merge.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.