Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 12: Toy Story

I’ve got idols with me/I’ve got idols with me
Advantages/I’ve got ‘em too
‘Cause Production/Likes me more than you.
When I win/You’ll all be feeling blue
‘Cause I’ve got idols with me!

Well, I’ll give the episode this: It at least gave me the chance to make another song parody. That very few people will get, as I doubt the overlap between “Survivor” fans and “Toy Story” fans is particularly large. Still, it’s a positive, and the episode should take what it can get. It won’t be getting very many compliments for this particular one.

We start off back at camp, with everyone discussing the previous vote-out. Gavin gets a bit of character development talking about his conflict in voting out Ron, but steels himself for future votes. He talks about how Rick is now the big threat who needs to go under any circumstances, thereby ensuring that Rick will stay this episode. He also mentions that Rick gets “All the best toys”, thereby at least giving me title fodder for this blog. Rick tells what at first seems like a pointless lie, claiming that his idol came from someone on the Edge of Extinction, rather than just being one he found. As soon as I wonder about the point of it all, though, Rick justifies himself in confessional, stating that this makes people think idols aren’t hidden around camp, thus preventing others from looking for the re-hidden immunity idol. Pretty good justification, but I’d point out that at least Lauren should be aware that this is bull, since she HAS found idols at camp previously. I’m pretty sure Rick isn’t aware of it, though, and Lauren could be justified in keeping quiet due to not wanting to reveal her idol, so not a bad play on his part.

Rick naturally gets up early and starts idol hunting. Not being quick enough, everyone notes his absence. Aurora talks about wanting Rick out, and rejoices in the fact that she finally has an alliance that seems solid. And with that, we know the outcome of the episode with absolute certainty! Good night, everybody!

Look, I know I rail against too little foreshadowing all the time, but too much can be just as bad. By setting up these obvious storylines SO EARLY in the episode, it just took the tension out of it. This could have been rectified by an interesting journey as to how we got to the outcome, or good character moments, but the journey itself just isn’t interesting. They TRY to give us the latter, but for some reason, with so many people left, it just doesn’t work. Huh. It’s almost like THE GAME ISN’T DESIGNED TO HAVE NEARLY EVERYBODY LEFT AT THE END! MAYBE THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA FROM THE START!

Ok, ok, rant over. I evidently didn’t give Lauren enough credit, as she does call Rick out on his bluff, both to him and everyone else left. She frames it as a “gut feeling”, thus keeping her hidden immunity idol, well, hidden, but it’s well-done nonetheless. I’m all ready to praise Lauren for keeping a good tail on Rick thus preventing him from finding his hidden immunity idol… And then she just up and leaves. Loss of smart-person points, Lauren. Sure enough, the dramatic music tells us Rick finds an idol. At least the episode was QUICK to point out how things wouldn’t go as planned. Rick tries to do his news anchor schtick again, but his giddy enthusiasm boils over, and it just comes across as forced this time. Patience, Rick, patience.

It’s saying something when the best aspect of this episode is the challenge, and not just the challenge, but the REWARD CHALLENGE! My God, we actually get something original in it! True, it’s our same generic obstacle course with digging under a pole and tossing balls onto an arch, but the first leg has players throwing a ball into a ramp, which they must run through some ropes to the other end of. If they catch the ball, it’s good. If not, try again. It’s creative, it works well in the challenge, it keeps things individual! By this season’s standards, it’s gold!

After a four-way race between Gavin, Rick, Aurora, and Victoria, Gavin “wins”. I put this in quotation marks because, although technically victorious, he now has to decide who to offend by not taking them on reward. True, it’s not as bad as when the same thing is done on the family challenge, but still decently bad. Gavin first picks Victoria to take on the picnic with him, which is solid. She’s both his ally, and someone shown to hold a grudge over not being picked, at least according to last episode. But then, Gavin fumbles it with his second pick: Lauren. The others are astounded that Aurora wasn’t picked, and frankly so am I. Both are in Gavin’s alliance at the moment, so it’s not the most illogical pick, but let’s consider the choices. Gavin can take Lauren, the person who’s the only non-Rick original Manu left, and therefore has little option BUT to stick with you, or Aurora, who’s been pretty much a free agent this season, and is KNOWN to hold grudges based on her feelings. Who needs to be coddled more?

After the requisite “Ha Ha, screw you!” helicopter fly-by of camp, we cut to our feast, where Gavin broaches the possibility of Rick being immune. He suggests, should this happen, that Julie get the votes, which makes a certain amount of sense. She’s not much of a threat in any regard at this point, but might have a couple of friends on the jury (Eric, Ron), and was the other person left out. Thus, easy consensus vote. I’m not sure she’s the SMARTEST choice at this juncture, but we’ll get to that. Lauren, however, is again one step ahead, saying privately that she has a bond with Julie (that we’ve never seen before this episode), and might want to try and find another plan. Yep. Same amount of subtlety we’ve come to expect from this episode.

Getting back to camp, Rick does what EVERYONE who finds an idol should do: Make like you’re still searching so no one catches on that you’ve found it. Rick again takes childlike glee in giving everyone the slip, and it’s here we learn the TRUE lesson of the episode: Lauren is Satan. Yes, you heard me right, Satan. Only the Lord of Darkness himself could dislike the game of “Hide and Seek”. It’s the best childhood game ever. Shame on you for disliking it, Lauren!

Oh good, the Edge of Extinction. So nice to see you after missing you last episode. It wasn’t long enough.

Ok, ok, I’ll be fair to the Edge of Extinction. It actually had kind of a fun idea this time around. Rather than looking for an advantage, those on the Edge of Extinction get to read notes they wrote to themselves prior to the beginning of the game. This is something we’ve never seen before, but it fits really well here, giving everyone a chance to look back on their journey, reflect on how far they still have to go, and talk about how they’ve grown as people. At least, that’s what SHOULD have happened, but it seems the overcrowding from the Edge of Extinction is now affecting even those on the Edge of Extinction. Rather than hearing excerpts from each person’s note, we get a montage. In some cases, where we get a bit of content from the person in question, it really works. Julia and Reem are prime examples of this. But most everyone else? It goes by too fast to build an emotional connection, and we’re just left wondering why we had to have this at all, if it’s relatively pointless?

Moving on to our immunity challenge, which is that “Slide tiles and carry them over balance things to solve a word puzzle” challenge, first seen on “Survivor Worlds Apart”. Probst claims it’s a common backyard game. I don’t know what backyards are like in Texas, but I’ve never seen a game even CLOSE to this anywhere but “Survivor”. If there’s something I’m missing, please enlighten me. It’s your standard dull, reused challenge, and yes, I realize that statement is redundant. I can at least say that the puzzle solution is good. “Not Living on the Edge tonight”. Fits with the season, but not completely obvious.

Surprising no one with a functioning brain, Rick wins, after Probst gives a fairly subtle hint to get people to the word “Tonight”. Julie, recognizing that she’s probably in trouble, makes a show about going off to talk with Rick. The pair decide to target Aurora, because as mentioned, she’s kind of the default target at this point for any alliance. Speculating on who they can get to help them out, Julie mentions her “bond” with Lauren that, as mentioned previously, was not brought up prior to this episode. Still, Lauren is open to the idea, and discusses with Gavin the possibility. Gavin is less closed off than he was to getting out Ron last episode, indicating that he’ll probably go along with the plan, but he wants Victoria in on it. In case Lauren wasn’t obvious enough, she keeps hinting how she’s willing to go with just Gavin, and they don’t need Victoria. Victoria, not being an idiot, realizes this means Lauren probably wants to go to the end with Julie, and thus getting out Julie might be a better bet. Victoria keeps herself open to the possibilities, though, as she should. As to which one she should go for, the answer right now is clearly Aurora. As mentioned, she’s more of a challenge threat, but also think about the Edge of Extinction. Whoever comes back next episode, they’re likely to have an uphill battle, since almost no one left would want to work with them. Aurora, as a relatively free agent, is a godsend to them. Thus, you get her out, whoever comes back has little foothold, barring another game-breaking advantage. This is only the right move for now, though, as we shall see soon at Tribal Council.

Talk at Tribal Council is pretty much all about how Rick is the one everyone wants out, and it sucks that he won. This leads Rick to try and get back at everyone, pulling out his hidden immunity idol and saying he’ll play it for Julie. I’m not buying it. Unless the idol expires at this Tribal Council (which, admittedly, it might), there’s no reason for Rick to risk it when in all likelihood Julie joins in voting him out should he not win the next immunity. What this DOES do is incentivize others to vote for Julie. Yeah, for all the good points voting for Aurora has, a chance to flush an idol trumps them. Rick, unfortunately, finds himself in the position of the “Three Amigos” on “Survivor Caramoan”, as by unveiling an idol, he now has to play it, or risk losing an ally. It’s too easy a bluff to call.

Evidently calling an easy bluff is too much for this cast. Aurora is predictably sent home, and I’m kind of sorry. Both she and Julie would be losses to this season, but Aurora was the slightly bigger character, and more intriguing, as she rarely had a formal alliance. She goes out with class, though still swearing vengeance against Rick. Vengeance she might get as she, like everyone else, heads to the Edge of Extinction. Ok, while I’m HAPPY no one just gave up on the game, it’s still annoying that we had to see the non-dilemma every time. After Keith, nothing could compare.

In case it wasn’t clear, I am not partial to this episode. It was predictable, and gave us nothing in return. Thus boring, lame, and with little to do but write song parodies about it. Let’s hope this downward trend doesn’t continue into the finale.

Speaking of which, this is normally where I’d talk about those who are left, and their odds of winning the game, should they get to the end. Well, I’m not doing that this season, mainly because we don’t know who all is coming back from the Edge of Extinction. To give you my general thoughts, those coming back from the Edge of Extinction have the best chance of winning in the end, but the hardest time getting there. Then there’s everyone else, who seem like nice enough people, but cluster in their ball of blandness to not stand out at all. Instead, let’s live up to the “Speculation” part of this blog’s name, as I give you:

MATT’S TOP 5 PEOPLE WHO MIGHT COME BACK FROM THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION!

Yes, this will not be a proper “Top 5 and Bottom 5” but will follow the format of one. Now that we’ve finalized who all has a shot to come back, let’s discuss the people I think have the best odds, based both of edit and on challenge performance. We begin with…

5. Chris-Maybe a bit of a stretch, but Chris has been presented as a challenge beast from the beginning, and he nails the editing part of it as well. We’ve seen a fair amount of Chris after his exit, which is partly due to his length of time on the Edge of Extinction, but he’s gotten a lot of confessionals about his “Perfect Game” failure, which seems like a story to be set up for the finale. However, Chris only gets number five, because I would have put him much higher before tonight. The trouble is that I feel like his note scene may have wrapped up his story arc, and may spell doom for the man come the challenge.

4. Joe-Yeah, it wasn’t going to be a list about challenges without Joey Amazing showing up SOMEWHERE. If this list were based purely on challenge ability, he wins hands down. Joe is favored to win most challenges, and things like a ropes course, which we know will be in the challenge, are right up his alley. So, why is he only number four? Well, as I said before, I’m counting edit here as well, and have we heard from Joe at all since his boot episode? That’s what I thought. That severely decreases his odds, though challenge performance alone is enough to keep him on the list.

3. David-Out of all the returnees, David’s is the only one whose exit didn’t feel satisfying. Aubry and Kelley both got done in by their hubris, and Joe just underestimated his opponents. All flaws that we can understand. David? Just bad luck with the numbers, and that just feels unsatisfying for a returnee. Add onto that returnees being favored in most challenges due to greater familiarity, and this challenge favoring the tiny, and I think David’s got a decent shot at returning. If we’d heard from him more after his boot, he’d probably be number one.

2. Aurora-Aurora has what we might call “Andrea Boehlke Upside” from “Survivor Redemption Island”. A tough challenge competitor voted out close enough to the end that she has more energy than most of her opponents, and again, coming into a challenge that plays to her strengths. Her comment about getting Rick out also strikes me as potentially prophetic, so I’d give her pretty good odds of returning overall.

1. Aubry-Perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part, since I love Aubry as a player and want her to do well on this season, but I keep coming back to a couple of things that make me see her as the returnee from the twist. She has returning player upside, to be sure, but we also saw a decent amount of her well beyond her boot episode. Granted, we’ve seen pretty much nothing of her these last few episodes, but since most of our time is just devoted to the newest person on the island, that’s unsurprising. Two things come back to me that make me favor Aubry. One is the chance to practice the challenge. It not only gives her an edge physically, but an edge psychologically, as she won’t be as shocked as the others by the challenge itself. The other is the “Aubry is out for blood” comment from the first “Back from Edge of Extinction” challenge. While Aubry’s story FELT like it concluded with her exit, this opened it back up again, and I feel it needs to be resolved, which it can only do if Aubry comes back.

Honorable Mention: Reem-Going purely on confessionals, Reem would be the person to re-enter the game. She’s been the most consistent narrator of the Edge of Extinction, and on a certain level, it would be poetic justice for the first boot to re-enter the game. That said, this challenge doesn’t particularly favor Reem, and her confessional count seems more due to her giving a great confessional than hinting at a return. Still would be fun, though.

So, what do you all think? Who’s going to come back from Edge of Extinction? Let me know your GUESS in the comments below. Spoilers will not be approved, and will be afforded a special level of hell, along with those people who talk in the theater.

That said, you’re going to have to wait for your weekly dose of “Idol Speculation” next week. As previously mentioned, I have a new job, meaning I don’t have vacation yet, and can’t call off of work following the finale. This means I can’t stay up to write the blog and still go to work, so it will have to wait for the afternoon after. I swear to not read any blogs or take in any new opinions until I get mine down on data. See you when that happens!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 11: The Wild Devans in its Natural Habitat

On tonight’s episode of “Survivor”, we will be forgoing the game to bring you more educational content. Our subject for this evening: Rick Devans. Formerly a species on the edge of extinction, a difficult breeding program has allowed it to be reintroduced into the environment. Despite many threats from predators, it now thrives, using its unique talents to save itself from destruction.

Skipping out on the “Previously On…” segment once again, we jump straight to damage control. Specifically, damage control on Rick, since he’s about the only person left out of the loop after the previous vote. You can tell that Rick is ANGRY in the confessionals, but his anger is directed specifically at Ron, who has now lied to Rick twice. Naturally, this makes Ron the BEST possible choice to calm down Rick. To be fair, Rick actually does a spectacular job of hiding his anger outside of confessional, and Ron does have one advantage in winning back Rick. Specifically, he has the expired advantage menu, which he gives to Rick as a sign of trust. Presumably he cut off the expiration date so that Rick can’t tell that it’s a fake from just looking at it, but the suspiciousness of the scenario alone, coupled with Rick needing to state what advantage he uses pre Tribal Council (or at least, so I assumed at the time), should clue Rick in instantly. Rick, however, seems to overall fall for it, calling it his bargaining chip. That said, Rick doesn’t immediately fully trust Ron or the advantage, however, so point for him in that respect.

Moving right along, we get our loved one’s challenge, but more importantly we get an ACTUAL INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE POST-MERGE! STARS BE PRAISED, WE MAY ACTUALLY SEE SOME TOUGH CHOICES BEING MADE, AND AN EXCITING CHALLENGE THAT CAN ONLY BE DONE IN THIS PHASE OF THE GAME! Since the challenge is clearly the most important part here, let me briefly address how it works. One member of a player/loved one pair will run to the water, collecting it in a bucket. They will then toss that water at another bucket, held by their loved one, who dump it into yet another bucket, trying to weigh it down enough to raise a flag, the first one to do so winning a picnic lunch at camp, because you know, this challenge didn’t piss people off enough if they don’t win. You just had to rub it in their faces afterward as well. As Probst correctly mentions, this specific challenge hails from “Survivor Heroes vs Villains”. You may remember it as that one challenge where Colby (“Survivor The Australian Outback”) went apeshit on his brother, despite Colby himself not exactly being a challenge god that season. That moment will be hard to top, but I will say that I overall like this version of the challenge better, due to one simple change: The players now do the running instead of the loved ones. While I do like that this challenge hinges less on strength and more on throwing technique, it’s better to have the players we’ve spent time bonding with (or at least SHOULD have been bonding with were it not for pointless, time-wasting twists) doing the more active part of the challenge. Keeps us more invested.

The majority of our loved ones here are nothing more than your mildly touching reunion, but there are a few worth commenting on. First off, we have Ron’s husband, Lloyd. Ron, my man, you have done well for yourself. I’m straight, but that is a damn handsome man! Second of all, this is the first time I believe Ron’s sexuality has actually been brought up on the show. Don’t misunderstand me here: Long gone are the days when “The Gay Guy” was used as a marketing technique for the show, but not bringing it up at all until it becomes relevant (as opposed to someone like Aurora, whose sexuality WAS brought up before now, if not emphasized) shows a maturity that makes me still like the show, even to this day. It’s also nice to see that non-straight sexualities are being more and more normalized in mainstream media, especially since it’s come to my attention that BOTH kisses between Ami, Scout, and their partners were censored from “Survivor Vanuatu”. Particularly hypocritical when you consider they showed Rupert and Laura Boneham trying to eat each other on the previous season. Second is Victoria’s father, Troyzan (“Survivor One World”). Wow, really? Four returnees just wasn’t enough? Seriously, give that guy longer hair, and he’s Troyzan, no questions asked. But of course, the real show stopper here is Gavin, where we’re reminded yet again that he left his wife TWO FREAKING DAYS after marriage to go play “Survivor”. If there isn’t a medal for what this woman’s going through, there should be. Few things take precedence over “Survivor” in my book, but a new marriage is definitely one of them. Predictable, since this story was well-publicized pre-season, but still emotionally impactful nonetheless.

Oh, and I was also pleased to see so many married couples on this time, since “Survivor” especially in recent seasons, loves to cast singles in the hope of a showmance. This is hardly the most married players we’ve had left in the game at this point. I believe “Survivor Thailand” still holds that honor, with 6 out of 7 players being married, but still, this season is no slouch in that department.

Ron wins, and is of course faced with the choice of who to take with him on reward, and by extension, who to leave pissed off back at camp. Ron chooses to take Julie and Gavin with him on reward, which I can’t fault, despite what we’ll see later. Ron is in the power position, but unlike some other seasons, it’s pretty clear who he’s with and who he’s not with. His core foursome is himself, Julie, Gavin, and Victoria, with Rick as a side thing, but he doesn’t want to make that too obvious. Lauren and Aurora. Not needed, and given that display Gavin pulled, I think Ron has a pretty well built-in excuse for why he chose Gavin over someone else. I don’t even buy it when Victoria talks about how this was a mistake for Ron. She says the words but her heart’s just not in it. Clearly she’s ok, and is just playing it up for the show.

We get sweet moments between Gavin, Julie, and their loved ones at the picnic, but the one that takes the cake here is Ron. He does what all us fans would do in his position: Brag to the loved one about all the awesome stuff we’ve done in the game so far. Ron of course rhapsodizes about his strategic accomplishments, and how he’s been able to play both sides, and have everyone wrapped around his fingers, and good lord, the hubris is so thick you could cut it with a knife here! Why, Ron even talks about how taking Gavin was pure strategy, and no emotion. Just when you thought we might actually have a nuanced character here!

Finishing up, we return to camp, where Devans is conspicuous by his absence, being out looking for an idol instead. Intent on flushing such a possible idol, those at the camp, and Aurora in particular, set to looking through Rick’s bag. A sudden return and call-out by Rick puts their plan on hold, but Rick is not one to let this lie. He continues to comment about how awkward the whole situation is, hoping the shame and awkwardness will sway the camp against Aurora. This was a solid plan… 35 seasons ago. The trouble for Rick is that searching through someone else’s bag has lost what little stigma it once had, and now is just “You were dumb enough to leave something important in your bag, so shame on you.”. Thus, Aurora has every right to feel fine with having done so. Rick projects awkwardness onto her simply because awkwardness is Rick’s natural state of being.

Still, there is some good to be said for Rick here. After putting a bug in Ron’s ear about Aurora’s behavior, which is about as consequential as you’d expect, he decides to lean into the narrative written for him, and be brazen in his search for an idol. He eventually finds a clue, telling him the idol is hidden in the rafters of the shelter. I will give credit that at least THIS idol takes more than just getting people out of camp to get. Something like the idol Kelley Wentworth found (the second one) on “Survivor Cambodia” was easily grabbed in 30 seconds, and only needed patience for the opportune moment. Here, you have to climb a tree for the idol thus taking up more time and effort than some other idols. Rick initially wants to go full Mike Holloway (“Survivor Worlds Apart”), and just go for it out in the open, but his better instincts take over, and he waits for the cover of darkness. Surprisingly, no one bothers to check on the loud sounds of Rick Devans climbing a tree in the dead of night, and thus he gets away with it. Good for him.

Actually, for all my snark, Rick really is playing the “Mike Holloway” game at this point. Everyone’s out to get him, no one’s making it a secret, and so he’s just being blatantly funny and crazy because why not at that point?

Naturally, with two great challenges in a row, counting the immunity challenge from last episode, our fun exponentially increases with the greatest challenge yet! A spectacular contest, to be immortalized in the annals of “Survivor” History as… Yeah, it’s yet another bland endurance challenge. Specifically, it’s the one about supporting yourself in a box from “Survivor Fiji”. We don’t even get any mystery that the challenge will matter, with Rick being the first one out. Gavin ultimately wins, but it matters little in the grand scheme of things. No one will talk to Rick prior to Tribal Council, with Ron and Julie only making what could be best described as a token effort at doing so. As such, it is pretty much guaranteed that Rick is safe tonight. Thus, we need alternate plans. Ron and Julie discuss actually going for Aurora, but again, not buying it. Too little enthusiasm, and too predictable a plotline. However, it seems Victoria was indeed a bit more pissed that she initially let on. With both her and Lauren correctly predicting that Rick might play an idol, they decide they don’t want anyone else dictating who goes home. They decide on Ron, which by and large makes sense, since Ron’s the power player, and arguably the frontrunner to win at this point, outside of Rick. Less good is their idea to float this to Gavin. Apart from feeling indebted to Ron after the reward challenge, Gavin is not sure getting Ron out at this juncture is a good idea. And for him, it isn’t. Gavin is clearly a member of the majority at this point, and one with some influence, but not so much as to be the main target when insurrection comes. Almost the ideal position: To be seen as helping with moves, while not taking blame for the fallout. A sweet deal, to be sure, and one not to be given up lightly.

Aurora, therefore, tries to sweeten the pot. Wanting her extra vote to be used, as this is the last night it can be used, she gives it to Gavin, since, as he’s immune, he could use it on the revote as well. Ok, that logic I get, but Aurora, you act like you’ll get credit for this. You won’t. Gavin will. Yes, it’s good to avoid being voted out with an unused advantage, but how is this in ANY WAY helping your game. At least it does a good job making things more exciting as we head off to Tribal Council, good gameplay or not.

It is quickly topped, however, by Rick leading us into Tribal Council with a fake news headline about his impending fate. I would give you a blow-by-blow of what he says, but I’m too busy being pissed that this could have been the lead-in to EVERY Tribal Council, and we haven’t got it yet. For shame, CBS!

Without a doubt, this is one of the most blunt Tribal Councils I’ve seen in quite some time. Everyone makes no secret of Rick going, and while it looses some of the intrigue as a result, it does make up for it in sheer gumption. You can’t help but watch fascinated as everyone makes it clear who they intend to vote for. Unsurprisingly, this causes Rick to play first the expired advantage menu. Not one to let an opportunity like this lie, Rick calls out Ron and Julie on this, thus making them look bad, and giving Rick options for his future. How does he stick around? Well, despite my thought that playing a fake advantage might prevent playing real ones at the same Tribal Council, to prevent the flushing of fake advantages, Rick is allowed to play his actual immunity idol. Even THEN, though, Rick cannot be on the proper side of the vote. His vote for Aurora pales in comparison to the three votes Ron gets (one from Lauren, two from Gavin, using Aurora’s advantage), thus sealing his fate. He takes it with good grace, but I’ve got mixed feelings on Ron leaving. I never connected with him much as a character before this episode, and with all that hubris, he did kind of deserve it. That said, Ron was a major driver of strategy this season, and I feel the caliber may go down as a result of his exit.

That said, the caliber of the season continues to go up. Despite the poor misdirection, this episode did a fantastic job of showing us the ins and outs of this group of contestants, the loved ones brought needed emotion, and overall we got some really good gameplay from pretty much all of our parties. Say, you know what was missing in this episode? Why the Edge of Extinction of course! When we stop spending our time with the people who already lost, we can actually LIKE and BOND WITH this group of players! Who would have guessed?

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 10: Twist on the Outcasts

With the returnees out of the game proper (Edge of Extinction notwithstanding), now is the time for our new players to establish themselves as characters in their own right. That said, Gavin, while I enjoyed the “Pokemon” reference with “Smell ‘ya later!”, that’s not the way to do it. It just makes you seem like a derivative, lukewarm Gary Oak. I applaud the effort, but for now, the most interesting thing about you remains your pineapple shirt.

Speaking of Gavin, he’s first on our list of “Damage Control” tonight. Gavin is rightly pissed about being left out of the vote, but manages to keep his temper under control. The worst you can say is that he was slightly whiny when telling Wardog he just wanted to be included in the majority. Now, will Wardog continue his character development, or will he regress and be an ass about all of this? Well, you tell me: Which one’s funnier? Yes, the enigma that is Wardog continues, as despite handling previous situations well, here he’s fairly dismissive of Gavin, and doesn’t really address his concerns or do anything to bring Gavin back into the fold. Wardog’s done worse jobs, but the damage is done overall. Gavin now is out for blood. Wardog blood.

Our next damage control, predictably, comes from Ron towards Julie. However, despite Ron being so worried last episode about Julie’s reaction, she’s actually quite chill about the whole thing. Dare I say, she was downright pleasant about the whole thing! She assures Ron that everything’s ok, and that she understands why she did it. The pair reaffirm the need to move forward, and we pick up our jaws off the floor after Julie, she of the emotional reaction, controlling her emotions. Hmm. Character development for Julie, or simply reacting based on her mood? You decide!

The next morning, the time comes to sort some order from this chaos. We need a new majority alliance, and Rick and Wardog come to deliver. The pair talk with Ron about how the women will see them all as threats, and vote them out to build their resumes. They say the only way the threesome can have a chance at getting to the end is to stick together, voting out Aurora next since at this point she’s just the default target of any new alliance. Slightly sexist, and I think these guys are underestimating the skills of some of the women (Victoria and Julie in particular), but there’s a logic to their pitch, and at least some evidence to support it. Ron brags to the came about how he’s in the middle of all alliances and can go any way, and the fact that no one but his has caught onto this speaks volumes about his skill in the game.

Why, is that a reward challenge post-merge? It must be a team challenge! Yes, our teams of four break up into pairs. Two do the “Keel-Haul” challenge first seen on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, retrieving rings along the way. Our other pair then hurl said rings into posts to win a spa day. It’s as generic as they come, and not at all exciting. For one thing, they toned down the difficulty considerably. In previous iterations of the “Keel-Haul” challenge, coming up in the middle of the structure either disqualified you, or required you to go back to start. Here, it’s just a “You’re taking time catching your breath.” thing, and it’s not nearly as exciting. Secondly, our teams our very uneven, to the point that there’s no mystery about the challenge. Our blue team consists of Wardog, Lauren, Julie, and Rick, while our yellow team consists of Ron, Gavin, Aurora, and Victoria. Not only did yellow get all the challenge beasts, with Aurora’s performance in the challenge being highlighted by Probst, but the blue team got Wardog. With no puzzle to balance things out, since Rick is probably the best puzzle solver left, they’re pretty much doomed.

Or not, it would seem. Evidently Rick moonlights as one of those jerks at carnivals who make those rigged games look easy, as he almost effortlessly hits three rings to win reward for his team. Rather than celebrate, however, we cut over to Edge of Extinction. Kelley is of course the focus, but for once she’s not talking about how Edge of Extinction sucks. Rather, she’s talking about her personal “journey”, of accepting mistakes and failing to build connections. A confessional that would be particularly touching IF WE HAD FOLLOWED THIS JOURNEY FROM THE GET-GO! Yes, it got pain lip service to once in a blue moon, but overall, Kelley’s journey hasn’t been clear, and this kills any emotional connection this might have built. Chalk up another opportunity lost to this godforsaken twist.

Say, you know what we haven’t had in a while? Reem getting mad at people! Showing once again that she fails to comprehend why she was voted out, much less make any changes to correct it, Reem goes into Kelley, sending her off to the mast to have a good cry. This whole scene manages to hit the sweet spot of being mean enough to be uncomfortable, but not being so mean that it’s entertainingly uncomfortable. The result is that nothing much comes of it, and Edge of Extinction wastes our time once again.

Ron is making the best out of losing by saying it gives him a chance to talk to Gavin, Victoria, and Aurora about strategy. I’d point out that you could do this just as easily on reward, but who am I to harsh his mellow? Despite earlier being against Wardog, the foursome now identify Rick as the next biggest target, and swear to get him out. Now, how is Rick a target, you may ask? Initially they make him out as a challenge threat, but again, while I’d argue he’s a puzzle threat, he’s not as much a challenge threat overall. However, they then argue that he’s a jury threat whom everyone loves, which is more up Rick’s alley. This, however, brings up an interesting comparison. To all but the most uncultured, Edge of Extinction is obviously just the “Outcast” twist from “Survivor Pearl Islands” on steroids. There are some differences, but they’re overall minor. Thus, you expect this season to go down much the way that twist did. One big difference, though, is that the outcasts were vilified on their season, being seen as having “not played the game”, and being inherently less deserving of winning than those who had never been voted out. Here, Rick is not only not vilified, but his return from Edge of Extinction is even seen as something of a positive in terms of winning the game. So, why might we get two separate reactions from the same twist. Gut instinct might point to us knowing this time that the returning player from vote oblivion actually did suffer and starve like everyone else. That doesn’t hold, however, as apart from Rick’s word, which is worth just as much as Burton’s and Lill’s were on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, the contestants have no way of knowing this. As such, it must be something else. Rick’s charm is definitely a factor, but I don’t think that alone is enough to overcome this twist. Thus, I see two possibilities as to why the twist seems better received by the players this time. One is pretty straightforward: It’s season 38. A greater emphasis on resume building, coupled with people in general playing less overtly-emotional games, means people are less likely to be personally hurt by someone coming back, and thus less likely to hold it against them. The other, more intriguing possibility, is that people DO resent the person coming back, and think them less deserving, but just aren’t showing it. You see, the one big difference between this and the “Outcast” twist is that the outcasts only had one opportunity to get back in the game. Everyone else afterward was just voted out as normal. Here, however, people voted out KNOW they can get a second chance at the game. Therefore, to vilify the person returning from the Edge of Extinction, is to vilify themselves should they get back in the game after being voted out. No one wants to take that risk, so they keep their real thoughts to themselves. In the end, though, they’ll be forced to show those feelings. Really, the only way we’ll know for sure how they feel is Final Tribal Council, if there’s a player who went to Edge of Extinction there. If the reason is the former, they’ll be praised for overcoming obstacles. If it’s the latter, they’ll be asked “Why should I vote for you when you got outwitted?” or some variation therein. Doubtful we’ll get that specific of a scenario, but it’ll be interesting if it does happen.

Ah, rice. Ubiquitous to “Survivor” at this point, it is so often the subject of contention, due to being so central to camp life. Thus is the case here. Especially with such a large group of people, rationing is essential. That said, no one really wants to be in charge of the rationing, since it can lead you to seem bossy and controlling. Aurora, naturally, is in charge of the rice distribution, and verbally slaps Ron down for wanting to make a large portion while everyone’s away. Without knowing how much rice they have, it’s hard to make a call here, but the rice itself is not really important. What is important is Ron first giving back Aurora’s advantage, he says to buy her loyalty, but also implies that he’d look like a jerk to a potential juror if he didn’t, the second that while Aurora trusts him, he’s not sure he can work with her long-term, thus setting up some misdirection for the episode.

Meanwhile, our winners are having good fun at the reward. I would say “clean fun”, but they’re slathering themselves in mud, so yeah. Rick and Wardog just seem to be having a good time, but Julie and Lauren talk some strategy. Lauren is, of course, upset over the blindside of Kelley last episode, but also is now adrift and needs an ally. Thankfully, Julie is on the market to bring someone into the “Herself and Ron” fold. She and Lauren talk girl talk, by which I mean they discuss which guy they want out first. Julie favors Wardog, while Lauren favors rick, presumably because she has more connections to Wardog than to Rick. No agreement is reached, but the two do seem to want to work together, so another cog is in place.

Our immunity challenge today is NOT an endurance challenge, thereby making it the best individual immunity challenge thus far. As to the specifics, it’s mostly your bog-standard obstacle course, with contestants picking up pointless buoys along the way, leading to a 3-D star puzzle. I do like how you can’t necessarily tell is a piece is right or not in the puzzle, but apart from that, nothing much to recommend this challenge.

As this challenge has a puzzle, Rick is favored to win it. Win he does, though the editing gets clever and shows us one of his failures before we get into his success. Normally, the taking out of one major target could be a problem, but as both Aurora and Wardog were targeted before it makes a good bit of sense here.

Wardog, of course, sets out to rally the troops to his side. Even he admits that he’s a better choice to vote out than Aurora (debatable, as I’ll get to), but that he’s banking on everyone being “stupid” tonight. This honestly is the first thing we’ve seen that makes me think Wardog will go. Bland though this season might be, by and large people have made the smart decision each and every time. This implies that, if Wardog is the smart decision, then he’ll go, since that’s what’s been happening. Plus he’s underestimating his opponents, and that’s never good.

But is Wardog the smart decision? Depends on who you ask. Ron is one of our swing votes tonight, framing the debate as going between the group of Gavin, Aurora, and Victoria versus the group of Wardog and Rick. Between those two groups, it is smarter for Ron to stick with the former. Yes, the threat argument is there, but Ron’s proven that he can control the former group, and overall has greater influence and more options that way. With the latter? Fewer options and a hard time influencing anything. The debate is a bit more of a gray area for our second swing vote, Lauren. She indicates that she’s leaning towards Aurora, which is the correct move for her. Similar to Ron, keeping Wardog in the game gives her more options, where she doesn’t have much of a relationship with Aurora.

Who do I think is going home? Aurora. While Wardog is something of a threat, the momentum to get him out doesn’t seem to be there. Conversely, Aurora’s been the target for a while now, and eventually there’s just a frustration that the one target never goes home, and you get them out just to scratch that itch. Plus, all swing votes talk about her ouster with a lot more enthusiasm than Wardog’s. “Stupid” comment aside, Aurora seems the clear target. Good attempt at misdirection, show, but it’s not working this time.

Tribal Council at first seems like it’s going to be another exciting fireworks show, with Gavin once again going off on Wardog for how he talks to people. Wardog brushes it off, however, and we settle in to poker faces once again, keeping everything reliant on the previously mentioned poor misdirection. Instead, I want to draw attention to the jury, and not just because it was mentioned that people are playing to it tonight. While we only see from a select few people, those we do see are not happy with Wardog. This, to me, implies his jury threat to be overstated. True, he’s made moves, but he hasn’t made them in the nicest way, and I don’t think the jury can respect his moves without respecting him as a person, which they clearly don’t. This makes Aurora, with her potential underdog story, much more threatening in the long term than the abrasive, challenge-poor Wardog. Ron’s best move is still to vote him out, as the reason I outline above has nothing to do with these factors, but Wardog’s threat level just went down several notches, says I.

Not says the tribe, however. It seems the seemingly poor misdirection was itself a misdirection, as once again the smart move is made, and Wardog goes home. Despite not caring much for Wardog, I’m still sorry to see him go over Aurora. Don’t get me wrong, I like Aurora much better as a person, but Wardog was a far more fascinating character. The man could be a savvy player one minute, and a complete lunatic the next. That’s a fascinating dichotomy that Aurora, for all her pluckiness, just can’t match.

This episode is a solid episode of “Survivor”. Not much to make it stand out, but it develops the story of the season, and does its job well with solid misdirection and editing. That said, I do worry that the “Original Kama” thing is taking hold again, as only Lauren and Rick remain of the original Manu, and so this season may be boring yet.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 9: Meta-Forced

I get it, “Survivor” contestants. Really, I do. People have many goals in coming on the show, and for all, being remembered is one major goal. A good way to do that? Make a clever metaphor for the current state of the game. By all means, take your shots in this regard. But if a metaphor isn’t working, let it die! First we had the pilot/passenger thing that unfortunately carried over into this episode, and then the “pushing vs. letting up on the pedal” at the end. They’re not working. Let them die, and try something else. A good metaphor enhances the show, but a forced one, just makes us cringe.

And since I know people are complaining about how “fake”, she is, no, I do not count Aubry comparing the Edge of Extinction to things in this category. Those are similes.

Seems our “Previously On…” segment was just on a short furlough back to the game, as it is conspicuously absent tonight, though I suppose a succinct summary of that last Tribal Council would be hard even for Jeff Probst. Instead, we jump right into the fallout. Ward is pissed; there’s a shock. He blames Aurora for starting the whole thing, and while her comment did start off the debate, I’d be more inclined to blame Julie for fanning the flames. Still, it gets Wardog what he wants, which is a solidified whole. He talks to Ron and Julie about joining up with himself, Lauren, and Kelley, with Gavin brought in as a sixth to make a majority. Wardog, however, has lost some of his sales-pitch mojo. For a group of people needing security after a crazy vote, a solid majority seems appealing. So you frame it as “I’ve got Kelley and Lauren in my pocket, so we can make a six.” Instead, Wardog talks about how loyal he, Kelley, and Lauren are; how they’ve never voted against each other once. Yes, Wardog, please remind us how tight and unbreakable your bond is! I’m sure that’s in now way threatening in a game that is quite chaotic now! It seems hatred of Aurora now outweighs logic, though, as the other three quickly agree to this plan, with Julie in particular being in favor of it.

It seems Wardog sold Aurora short, however, as she’s not as unaware of her position as he claims. True, she still has no idea what happened at that last Tribal Council, but frankly none of us do. She is aware that she’s on the bottom, though, as no one is pulling her aside. She tells us she’ll need to win immunity in order to survive this next vote.

Speaking of which, this brings us to our immunity challenge! Rather early in the episode once again. Rather than herald a crazy Tribal Council, however, it instead heralds the boots of two episodes crammed into one. Because even LESS time to understand what’s going on or bond with the characters is EXACTLY what this season needed! Once again, I don’t understand why they’ve stopped doing this at the tribe phase of the game. It fits better in the overall episode, and can make for some great interpersonal dynamics. Here, it just feels cramped.

Our immunity challenge today is generic endurance challenge number 85. You know it’s reused. You know it’s from a past season. But you’re so numb to them by this point you don’t even care to remember what season it was originally on, because you’re too busy being pissed, since it looked like the raising fire challenge from “Survivor The Australian Outback” come back from the dead. The only true thing of note here is the return of the “eat or compete” twist. Always nice to see back, but even that gets little fanfare. No drama comes of it, we don’t get any dramatic reveal of who chose what, and even the food seems lackluster this time around. I thought you couldn’t make “Survivor” pizza look any more unappealing, but they found a way! Yep, we’re just going to pile it on top of itself so it all mushes together in a big, greasy, disgusting pile. Only starving people would eat that. It seems that Kelley, Lauren, Victoria, and Ron are starving. Makes sense for all of them. Kelley and Lauren have idols, and neither Ron nor Victoria have any reason to believe themselves a target.

At first, it seems like our eaters might not get much of a chance, as people drop out quickly. It comes down to David, Aurora, and Rick. Rick is out first, but gets in a good bit of newsman comedy about how much the challenge sucks. I will say that Rick’s humor is one of the saving graces of this season. It’s sparing, but it’s good when we get it, and I like how the music complimented it in this particular instance. Speaking of the music, it does a good job of building tension once it comes down to David and Aurora, swelling in such a way that it looks like each might fall at some point. Both are targets of some form at this vote, being outside the main alliance we saw form earlier, but for once, our more direct target wins.

Back at camp, our alliance of six reconvenes, where Lauren does a better job than Wardog at selling Ron, Julie, and Gavin on the alliance, talking about how everyone needs a say to come to a consensus, now that Aurora is immune. They quickly focus on David, as an endurance challenge threat and a returnee, and therefore just threatening in general. A logical choice, and for once, Kelley and Lauren don’t ruin it by unsubtly going against it.

Of course, one can’t expect a returnee to go down without a fight. David and Rick decide to target Wardog, on the theory that the “Lesu Three” are a threatening group that need to be broken up, and Wardog is not known for his good bedside manner in general. True, he’s gotten better as time goes by, but still, perhaps an easier sell than Kelley or Lauren at this point. Aurora and Victoria, left out of the majority are of course on board, but Ron and Julie will be a harder sell, particularly Ron, since he was burned a couple of votes ago. Wisely, they decide to talk just to Julie first, presumably playing up her bond with Rick from earlier in the merge. The pair at least give the idea due consideration, admitting that the “Lesu Three” are a threat. Ron is the more concerned of the pair, though, feeling they would have less power if allied with David and Rick, which is also a fair point. For all that the “Lesu Three” are a threat, they have at least done well at giving you the impression that you have a say, even if you actually don’t. On the other hand, with four original Kama in with David and Rick, you could argue that it would be easier to instigate a coup if something goes sideways in that group. Pros and cons to both, and I don’t think there’s really a “bad” choice for Julie and Ron here. Either way, they break up a tight group (the “Lesu Three” or David/Rick), and have some path to save themselves from the group they got with (pulling in outside if they stick with the “Lesu Three” or an original Kama majority if they go with David/Rick). Thus, for me, the better decision comes down to exactly who each side is targeting, and who would be better sent out. As such, I’m going to say that getting rid of David is the better choice here. Apart from having the advantage of experience in the game, thus making him dangerous, he comes across as a challenge threat, at least in terms of endurance. Conversely, the belief that Wardog is a challenge threat of any kind went out the window weeks ago.

Sensing this, David and Rick push the hard sell at Tribal Council tonight. Leaving aside the forced plane metaphors mentioned earlier, Rick starts in by pointing out the threat of the “Lesu Three”. Wardog points out that he’s pushing the hard sell, and Ron concurs that the hard sell doesn’t work. David does a deft job of pushing said claim back onto Wardog, and again leans on his experience, encouraging people to act on “The one conversation they’ll regret” if they don’t follow. A good pitch, and it does leave the good mystery up in the air until the end. Unfortunately, sometimes salesmanship isn’t enough. David goes home, and while I am sorry, I’m also glad. I enjoy David, and don’t like that he never really was able to get his game started. That said, one fewer returnees in the game means we FINALLY have a chance to bond with some new players instead. Now, if only we could get rid of Kelley…

Surprising no one, David heads to the Edge of Extinction. We were spared the “This sucks” confessionals from both himself and Julia this time around, though I suspect this is more due to time constraints than anything. Because when you’ve got extra time on your show, you want to spend it showing the same confessional we’ve seen many times before at this point.

Speaking of things we’ve seen before, it’s message-in-a-bottle time for everyone, telling of an advantage hidden someplace “jagged and smooth” when “you’re feeling hollow”. Some don’t even try to find anything, being too exhausted at this point, but those that do should have an easy time. The clue is obviously referring to a hollow in the rocks. It seems that Eric is even worse than a fool, as he somehow concludes that the clue leads to the rice getting area of the island. Joe and Chris also fall into this category, insisting that the advantage must be around the mast on the beach. Nope. It’s the rocks. Surprisingly, it’s David, the man who knows the island the LEAST well, who finds it. Unfortunately for him, it’s not that great an advantage. Just a challenge boost for someone still in the game. David talks about how this is a chance to curry favor with someone left in the game, and we just roll our eyes, since we all know it’s going to Rick, someone David definitely does NOT need to curry favor with.

Our immunity challenge is actually NOT technically endurance challenge, thus bears talking about. Tribe members roll small balls down to the flat end of a paddle, where they must land them in what Probst refers to as “dimples”. I personally would call them “indents” or “slots” but I guess Probst was feeling insecure, and needed to remind us that he has dimples. Probst, don’t worry. We know they’re there. They’re kind of hard to miss. In any case, the first person to land five balls wins immunity. This is definitely a reused challenge, hailing originally from “Survivor Philippines”, but again, it’s not endurance, so I’ll take it.

Rick reveals the advantage we all knew he had, and Probst tells us that Rick must only land four instead of five of his balls. I do actually like this advantage. It definitely helps, and if you’ve got skill in this challenge, it can be a major benefit to your victory. However, if you outright suck in this challenge, and previous challenge beasts like Kelley and Gavin do this time around, it might not matter. That said, Rick falls into the “Not Sucky” category, and so his victory is all but assured at this point, despite knocking his falls out of their “dimples” a couple of times.

Back at camp, everyone seems on the warpath for Aurora, so we need someone to shake things up. Somewhat surprisingly, given how calm he’s been over the past couple of episodes, Wardog comes to our rescue. His target? Of all people, Kelley. Evidently that anti-returnee bug is back, though again, given that it will help us bond with the cast, I’m not complaining too much. That said, I’m baffled here. Wardog had set himself up in a pretty cushy position here. A swing vote in the main alliance, and not as obvious a threat as others. Yet he’s willing to cut himself off at the legs. When was Kelley going to go against him? There’s little to no logic to Wardog’s decision here. Yet it’s RON, the person who should be chomping at the bit to get rid of Kelley, who’s hesitant. Ron, listen to me: Getting rid of Kelley is GODSEND for you. It keeps you in the majority, but gets rid of a major threat, as well as keep you in control of said minority. I hear your point about Julie not wanting Aurora around, but you didn’t go directly against her. Assuming you give her fair warning, I doubt she’ll be too mad. In case it wasn’t obvious, Kelley is the correct move for Ron and the other swing votes in this case (I don’t really count Wardog as a swing in this scenario). Gets rid of a major threat, and keeps the overall majority intact while still maintaining power within that alliance. The downside? Unless Kelley plays her idol, none that I can think of. Go for it!

The only wrinkle in this idea is Aurora, who has a good idea, but executes it poorly. While she’s happy there’s a target other than her, given that the news is coming from a man who goes by the name “Wardog” she’s suspicious. As such, she decides to get some insurance using her extra vote. Now, playing it here would be pointless, since with an odd number, there’s no risk of a tie. Instead, to help convince our swing vote Ron to keep her around, she ought to tell him about it, and say they’ll use it together if she stays. Instead, she gives it to Ron as collateral for keeping her around. This is an incredibly dumb idea since, as Ron points out, he can just get rid of Aurora and have an advantage for himself. Now there’s a slight incentive to get rid of Aurora, though since this means Aurora is also open to being a future number, I say still go for Kelley.

While no less mysterious, our second Tribal Council just doesn’t have the pizzaz the first one had. This is understandable, given that the first Tribal Council was about a battle between two sides, while the second is about subtlety and intrigue, lest an idol be played. This means that Ron and company needs to act like everything’s going down for a normal, boring vote. They do this well, and so I don’t blame Kelley for not playing her idol. That said, it does make things less interesting to watch, even with a second good bit of misdirection. As foreshadowed, Kelley goes home, and again, I’m not overly sorry. Kelley had returnee upside, but she didn’t bring as much snark as she did on “Survivor Cambodia”, and again, as it means we’re finally unshackling this season from being all about the returnees, I’m in favor of it.

This season continues it’s upward swing, again only hampered by the lack of time. There’s just too much to get through in each episode, and it leaves things feeling cramped and rushed. However, we’re now at the point of exciting Tribal Council, good camp intrigue, and a cast now able to forge their own path, rather than one related to returnees. If the season can keep up this trend, it just might move up a few slots in my rankings. It would take a miracle to put this season in the “Best of the Best” category at this point, but we just might avoid mediocrity as well.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 8: Inside Voices

Well, this was certainly an unusual night for “Survivor”. Oh, not because of the crazy Tribal Council, no, no. This episode we got a sneak preview for the next season, including its theme! Usually these are saved for the finale, but I guess CBS has given up on this season already, and just decided to promise us bigger and better things to come. With that in mind, who’s excited for “Survivor: Kindergarten”? Yes, what “Survivor” needs more than anything is drama, and what group of humans is more melodramatic than kindergarteners? Not to mention loud! Yes, no more mystery, just drama, as our new contestants scream their strategy at the top of their lungs! What’s that? You say kindergarteners are way too young to be on “Survivor”? Screw you! We’re CBS! We do what we want, and we’ve got stage moms to exploit!

Getting into our episode proper, we find that evidently CBS DOES read this blog, as our “Previously On…” segment is back once again in its full glory. I don’t have much to say about the segment itself; it’s pretty much just your standard “Previously On…” segment. However, if CBS really is listening and taking my advice, this is an opportunity not to be missed. Here are some ideas for you, CBS: Change up locations every other season, rather than just sticking in Fiji all the time. A De-Merge in the middle of a merge. Hide Hidden Immunity Idols at Tribal Council. Put the full intro into the episodes with original theme music. And, most importantly, put me on the next season! I’ll just wait outside for you to come get me while you implement the rest of my brilliant ideas.

Dammit.

Ok, well, if I’m not going on the show I can at least blog about it. Our first order of the day is consoling the blindsided people. Specifically Ron, in this case, which may come back to bite people later, as we’ll see. As the main person pulling for the move to oust Eric, Gavin is the one called upon to justify himself. Surprisingly, it’s actually Ron who instigates the conversation. He holds up pretty well initially, listening to Gavin’s arguments, but his body language betrays him, and he quickly falls apart.

Now, Gavin so far has handled the whole “betrayal” thing pretty well. Not spectacularly, but he hasn’t done anything to truly alienate anyone yet. All he needs to do to cement his position is make sure he doesn’t tie himself too much to one side. Being the swing vote plays to his strengths, and keeps him in power in shat is now a fairly chaotic group. Naturally, Gavin’s next move is to swear undying loyalty to Kelley and company. Because, you know, moving from an enviable swing-vote position to being on the bottom of the most solid group left in the game makes PERFECT sense!

Gavin’s not the only one with repairs to do. David, happy he dodged a proverbial bullet, now can only complain about the schism between himself and Rick. David states that the split would be a lot easier if there weren’t a custody battle of the half-idol he shares with Rick. Luckilly, divorce lawyer Aurora is here to help!

No, no, that doesn’t happen. Would have been a nice, natural career tie-in though. Instead, Rick and David patch things up, making that whole conflict from last episode pretty much pointless. David does declare that his was the right side as well, and yeah, despite my equivocating last episode, if you had put a gun to my head and forced me to declare one player over another, I’d have said that David had the better plan. I still say both sides had points, though.

Our mandatory Edge of Extinction check-in exists to inform us that yes, it sucks for Eric as well. But, with no advantage to look for this week, it’s not enough to just briefly mention this and move on. No, we have to dwell on the same shit we’ve heard from EVERYONE who’s come to Edge of Extinction! Yes, they do a lot better at balancing the time between Edge of Extinction and NOT Edge of Extinction this time around, but this only highlights another problem of the twist: repetitiveness. With not a lot to do out there, you’re going to hear the same confessionals over and over and over again. It’s got the point where it just feels like a waste of time. To add insult to injury, we actually DO get a new and interesting confessional during Eric’s. We see Reem talking to Aubry and Eric about how different it is coming to Edge of Extinction when no one else is there, and how hard it is. That’s an interesting new dynamic that hasn’t been explored yet, so of COURSE we don’t dwell on it and go back to Eric having a rough time here. Look, I get what they’re trying to do. With Eric talking about the temptation of leaving, they’re building up that he may quit. The trouble is that it’s fairly obvious EVERYONE goes through this debate when they first get there, and so we can pretty much know (even if you didn’t see the episode preview where Eric is present at Tribal Council) that it’ll come to nothing. It just makes the whole thing seem like a waste of time, even when it’s only one short scene. Chris does catch a stingray, though. Yay.

Back with strategy we actually care about, we get a fascinating look into how the strategy dynamics are shaking out after that blindside. Julie in particular is more than a little on edge, which is understandable when you think about the circumstances. This has been a game of ups for Julie overall. No Tribal Council until the merge, and when she does go, it’s with a supermajority that she has a position of some power in. This last vote is the first time something goes wrong for her. It’s understandable that she’d be a bit upset, and right of her to show concern. She WILL go too far later in the episode, but that’s for later. For now, she can be content that she has some options. David and Rick, not willing to simply roll over and let Kelley run the game, decide they want some power for themselves, and so discuss with Ron and Julie the possibility of a tight core foursome. Gotta admit, that would be a pretty cool alliance. The funny people and the older people banding together. Could be a good counter to what’s now being called the “Lesu Three”, being Kelley, Lauren, and Wardog. Of course, this group can do math, and realize that they need two more people to gain a majority. Aurora is thrown out as a possibility, but Julie is skeptical. Understandable, since Aurora mainly had beef with Ron and Eric, and so is less likely to join an alliance with Ron. In fact, the group would have to work hard to find someone LESS likely to join than Aurora.

Wardog is then thrown out as a possibility. I stand corrected.

Meanwhile, of course, the Lesu Three can also do math, and recognize the need for others. Gavin’s already on board, so they work on securing Julia and Victoria, wanting to target either Ron or David first. The Lesu Three naturally prefer to keep David over Ron, as the former is a potential number for them should things go sideways. Gavin, however, masterfully maneuvers them into a position where they can’t really deny David as a better target. Rather than play on loyalties, which could give his game away, Gavin argues that David is a challenge threat. Yes, really. Pointing out that your proposed target has done well in all individual challenges so far is a good way to put a target on someone without seeming like you have ulterior motives. The Lesu Three clearly aren’t happy about it, but have no choice but to go along with it for now.

So we come to our immunity challenge. Yes, really. Only a quarter of the way into the episode, and we’e got immunity. No, this is not two episodes crammed into one. This is just how weird this episode will get. Not our immunity challenge, though. This is “Bow-Diddly”, first seen on “Survivor South Pacific”, though with David Wright on this season, Probst of course likens it to “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”. This is the challenge balancing a ball on a bow while on a balance beam while baking brownies in the shape of bowling balls in the black forest. Not exciting, another endurance challenge, you know how it goes. Hell, they even cut out the first section of balance beam, since evidently no one fell on those.

After some intense competition, it comes down to a duel between Gavin, a man who was in no way targeted tonight, and David, a man who was often talked about as a potential target. Naturally, Gavin wins. To his credit, though, he EARNED that win, having several near misses with his ball throughout the challenge. He recovers well, is what I’m saying. His prowess ends when he leads us to commercial, talking about how David needed to be beaten, and is certainly going home tonight, ensuring that David will last at least past this episode.

Tribe dynamics were still very much up in the air prior to the challenge, and little changes due to the outcome, though we do start to see where the shift comes. Having wisely abandoned the “Wardog” plan, Rick sets about sweet-talking Julia, Gavin, and Victoria. They’re willing to lend an ear, but also talk things over with the Lesu Three. As Lauren points out, David winning immunity makes Ron a harder pitch for them. Still, they try, pointing out how many connections Ron has by virtue of being an original Kama. Not a bad pitch, but as mentioned, these people aren’t stupid. Julia sees right through the pitch, and so now feels it imperative that the Lesu three be broken up. She gathers the old Kama, sans Gavin, and discusses the merits of getting rid of Kelley versus getting rid of David, the other target. Victoria, however, sums up the debate the best, saying that a group of three is more dangerous than a group of two, and thus Kelley needs to go. Sound logic. Now if only everyone can get on board. Ron is skittish, with Julie right there with him, forcing a lot of hand-holding and comforting in the plan. Now if only it were as solid as they though. Gavin, as mentioned, was not included in the decision making, and is naturally upset about this. In confessional, he states that he would rather go with the Lesu Three, since he’s bonded well with them. We see nothing about him upsetting their plans, though, presumably because Gavin is smart enough no to push for something the majority doesn’t want, but it’s a fracture nonetheless, which will become very important tonight.

Remember how sly these people were? How good they were at pulling the wool over Aubry’s eyes to vote her out? Yeah, evidently they must have used up all their subtlety on that vote. Kelley notes that she’s getting the silent treatment, as well as funny looks from Julia, indicating that she’s possibly a target. And she’s not the only one. David says that his Spider-Sense is tingling once again. You’re getting lazy, David. Reusing metaphors. Up your game. In any case, Rick gets the same vibe, and so it seems like the idol use is in the offing, as we head off to Tribal Council.

Now we come to Tribal Council. Our main selling point. The thing that takes up just about half of the episode. For all this buildup, it’s… ok.

Things start out normal enough. Some good banter. David tries out a cliche metaphor about sharks and minnows that everyone will try to hitch to at some point. But our first crack towards chaos starts with Julie, once again harping on about being left out of the vote last time. No, no. She’s still within the bounds of reason at this point. The full blow-up is yet to come. For now, Ron does damage control, more diplomatically stating their shared position. Aurora is the next to make a slip-up, pointing out that the Lesu group is united, and therefore a threat. Wardog counters that they’re a fractured bunch, and therefore not a threat. Kelley looks to Julia for reassurance, and Julia, giggling, swears that things are ok. Probst latches onto this, claiming Julia giggled at Aurora, which Julia denies. Sensing an opening, Rick preys on Julie’s mistrust of the old Kama, pointing out that there are fractures in Kama, and them coming with Lesu could make seven. Aurora rightly calls out that a minute ago they were saying they were divided. And thus begins the whispering. Wardog, Ron, Julie, and Lauren talk about getting rid of Aurora for some reason. Kelley once again looks to Julie for reassurance before talking to David. Victoria wanders over to Wardog’s group to see what’s going on. This also begins the reactions from the jury. Now, at first, these seem to be overreactions. After all, we’ve had chaotic Tribal Councils before. But it seems this is no mere posturing, nor even a frank, secretive, exchange of ideas. No, this is a real conflict of interest, as soon the whispering is thrown out the window for full outdoor voices to hear. Definitely something different than we usually see. Do I think the reactions of the jury were played up? Yes. Do I think the excitement of this Tribal Council was oversold? Absolutely. But it’s still a great moment of tv nonetheless.

Things culminate with Julie stating that she’s “out”, declaring herself a free agent, and going to sit with most of the rest of the Lesu group. Here’s where my sympathy for Julie’s position ends. It’s right to be suspicious when you’re on the wrong side of the vote. It’s another thing to completely throw your game away for it. Let me repeat: this is the FIRST thing that hasn’t gone Julie’s way this entire game, and she’s basically thrown away her entire game for it, agreeing to whatever out of sheer paranoia. One should listen to fear on “Survivor”, but shouldn’t let it control their game. Right now, Julie is letting it control her game, and I see it costing her dearly.

What really makes this scene interesting for me, though, is how it highlights how good or bad people are at interacting with others. In high-stress situations like this, there’s no pretense. Some people are just naturally calm and collected, others show their true colors as jerks. Two who come off well here are Ron and Wardog, particularly the latter. Ron does a good job remaining diplomatic throughout. Wardog, despite how bombastic he can be, calmly suggests ideas to others, and presents himself, somehow, as a calm port of stability in a sea of chaos. Coming off less well is Julia, who dismisses multiple people throughout the course of the chaos. She claims Rick is a “passenger” in the game, and bluntly tells Wardog to shut up when he suggests voting. Not the best look for her.

After all that chaos, I’d be surprised if we didn’t see at least one idol play just for safety’s sake. Rick obliges, playing his idol for David. Seems even when new players do get an idol, they still end up using it on returnees anyway. David does get a vote, as does Kelley, but as always on “Survivor” things come down to who do people get along with. As we saw, Julia is not easy to get along with in such situations, and goes home. I can’t say I’m too sorry. She seems like a nice enough person, but was boring tv, and up until recently, really did nothing to earn her spot. Still, she’ll get another shot on Edge of Extinction.

This season continues to move in the right direction, pulling out another pretty good episode. Despite how rushed it felt at times, we got a good look at shifting dynamics, before those dynamics were brutally ripped apart at Tribal Council. Maybe a bit overhyped, but a good episode nonetheless.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 7: Cain and Abel

It’s often said that your melodramatic, over-the-top moments are the ones that stand out in “Survivor” history. Not necessarily in a good or a bad way, but just stand out. Think Brandon Hantz dumping the rice on “Survivor Caramoan”. Kass’ flip on “Survivor Cagayan”. Basically anything Rupert did. These are the moments that generally stand out and make you think. Sometimes, though, a moment comes along that’s quiet and nuanced, yet impacts you and sticks out just as much. To quote Chris Daugherty (“Survivor Vanuatu”), “That’s what’s happened this time.”

Starting things off, we see that the elimination of the “Previously On…” segment was not just a one-time thing for the merge, since it happens here as well. I get the suspicion that this is like the elimination of the Fallen Comrades portion of the game, where they’re taking it out and seeing if anyone complains. If not, then they’ll just keep it out. So let me say, right now, I’m here, and I’m complaining! For this season, I get the necessity. With so much to go over in each episode (a consequence of having 8/9ths OF YOUR PLAYERS STILL IN THE GAME HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON!), something has to give, and this is arguably the least-essential part of episodes nowadays. However, that only works for hardcore fans like me, who won’t be missing episodes if they can help it. What getting rid of the “Previously On…” segment DOES do is make the show inaccessible to new fans. Given the hardcore fanbase “Survivor” has, this would seem inconsequential, but I’d argue that part of the reason the show has lasted as long as it has it that it gains new fans at about the same rate as it loses them. Hell, I can speak from experience here: My “Survivor” fandom started most of the way through “Survivor Guatemala”, so I had no idea what was going on most of the time, and would have been completely lost without the recap. If I was completely lost, I might not have evolved into the “Survivor” Nerd I am today. So, for the sake of new fans, please bring back the “Previously On…” segment.

Getting into the actual episode, we for once do get fallout from the previous Tribal Council. Specifically, the main drawback to voting out Joe: Aurora. While formerly a loyal ex-Kama, she had to be left out of this vote for being too close to Joe. Logical, but naturally leaves her pissed off following the vote. As the leaders of the alliance, it falls to Eric and Ron to try and bring her back into the fold. And try they do, framing their argument as an emotional one. Specifically, they claim that they did it to protect her from having to vote out her friend. Aurora is still naturally upset, but outwardly seems somewhat calmed by this explanation. Inwardly, though, she recognizes where this puts her in the alliance. Still, she’s not willing to fully abandon them just yet, realizing where the numbers lie. Thus, she decides to go full Sandra Diaz-Twine (“Survivor Pearl Islands”), and go for the “As long as it ain’t me.” strategy. Again, logical.

Happier to have survived the vote are David and Rick, since both received votes previously. As such, both are currently happy to stick with the current Kama. The current Kama are pretty happy about this as well, as it means the fracturing of the “old Lesu” as they put it. They say that unless the old Lesu unite and pull in Aurora, they’re dead in the water.

We cut to Kelley, Lauren, and Wardog talking about how they got played, and need to pull in a sixth to have a shot. They correctly deduce that Aurora is the person to target for flipping here. Wow, that was a fast undermining of the confidence of the main alliance.

After a brief check-in on Edge of Extinction just to confirm that yes, even Joey Amazing finds it miserable, we cut over to our reward challenge. And I have to tell you guys, I’ve never seen a challenge more innovative! More exciting! More spectacularly eye-catching than this challenge! This will go down in the annals of “Survivor” history as the greatest challenge of all time! Screw any future “Top 5 and Bottom 5” lists, this one is all of it! The alpha and the omega.

Just kidding, it’s another generic obstacle course. And a team one at that, thus giving me basically no reason to care. I can at least say that our teams are fairly evenly divided. The blue team consists of Rick, Wardog, Eric, Aurora, Victoria, and Julia, while the yellow team consists of David, Ron, Gavin, Kelley, Lauren, and Julie. I’d say blue has a slight edge physically, but yellow has an edge mentally. Normally on a challenge ending in a puzzle (because at this point, it’s now a staple of the generic obstacle course challenge) this would give the yellow team the edge. However, these particular puzzle pieces require a good amount of physical strength to lift, and this combined with blue team’s slight lead going into the puzzle nets them the reward of Chinese food. Ron is initially dejected about this, but comforts himself with schadenfreude. Namely, this way Kelley and Lauren don’t get anything to eat, thus keeping them weaker.

What Ron neglects to consider is strategizing. As our winning group generically enjoys their food, Kelley takes the opportunity of having fewer people at camp to strategize with David. After token apologies from the pair for targeting the other, they get down to brass tacks. Kelley notes that the previous vote puts David and Rick solely at the mercy of the Kama majority, but with Aurora potentially on their side, they could have six to force a tie. Not the most attractive of propositions, but remember that Aurora is pissed, and that the “Lesu” based side would have a monopoly on hidden immunity idols, thus giving them the edge. David, preferring to be in control of his own destiny, rapidly agrees that this is a good idea, and states that he’ll bring it to Rick later. Now, David was an easy sell, but Rick will definitely be harder, since he was more actively targeted at the previous Tribal Council, and is understandably a little resentful of having been voted out in the first place. Point being, Rick will require a delicate touch to be brought back into the fold, a move that should only be attempted by the most subtle and nuanced of players.

So, the next scene features Wardog trying to convince Rick to join back up with Lesu. You can imagine how well this goes.

Actually, to give Wardog his due, I don’t think his initial pitch was that bad. He brought up the numbers problem, and emphasized Rick needing to control his own destiny. The problem is that Wardog, logical or not, is the WRONG person to bring this up to Rick. Even if his delivery is on point, like his start of the conversation here, Rick isn’t going to want to listed. Wardog was the swing vote who ended Rick’s time in the game. Rick isn’t going to be too happy to hear anything he has to say. When Rick then summarily dismisses Wardog’s offer, Wardog then loses the high ground, chastising Rick for “playing emotionally”. You know, because insulting the person you want to ally with always works!

This, however, leads to our most interesting discussion of the night. Yes, for the first time in the game, Rick and David are at odds, the former adamant about sticking with Kama, the latter wanting to hook back up with Lesu. David is a bit incredulous about the whole thing, insisting that one of them must be drunk right now. I, however, would argue that both of them are playing perfectly logically for themselves right now, and that’s what makes it so fascinating. Rick has a point when he says that Lesu targeted him post-merge, and thus he has no reason to trust people who wanted him gone literally yesterday. David, though, also has a point when he says he would have no power on Kama. There’s no yelling, no screaming, just a measured and peaceful parting of the ways. And I love it. Unlike many, MANY other things this season, we have a clear understanding of how we got here, and why this is happening. The alliance we’ve arguably been following the longest is now crumbling apart, and it is beautiful.

Shame it happens so early in the episode. There will still be good moments, but it’s all downhill from here.

By the by, this also eliminates the one upside to giving David the half-idol, as David doesn’t give it back as a safety measure, lest Rick use it for Kama. Yep. REALLY should have given it to Julie.

We check back in at Edge of Extinction. A message in a bottle heralds, you guessed it, ANOTHER ADVANTAGE! Seriously, this is what, one per episode at this point? Look, “Survivor”, I was willing to give you a pass on “Survivor Game Changers” since people saved their advantages absurdly long on that season. But now, I must echo the audience cry: YOU’RE PUTTING IN TOO MANY! I don’t go the route of the purists and say get rid of them entirely, but seriously, you need to cut WAY back.

All pretense of working together is out the window at this point, especially as Reem seems to have just given up searching at this point. Everyone puts on their shoes, and the race is on. As the clue talks about rocks and “Stepping back”, pretty much everyone identifies the general area as being around the steps up to the rice. Only our beloved Aubry, however, has the intellect to realize that one actually needs to DO the second part of the clue, rather than hunt on the underside of the steps themselves. Doing so has her spot a suspicious hole in the rock face, in which she finds a key to her advantage. Good for Aubry. Her advantage, probably the best one to get, as I said for Chris, is a chance to practice the challenge to get back in the game early. Good for Aubry, though I’m slightly saddened that this means our challenge will be another ropes course, which is both overdone and not an endurance challenge, as I’d hoped.

Aubry states her intention to keep the practice site to herself, but it’s a little unclear how she’d do that. While I doubt starving people are doing regular laps around the island, they still know there’s an advantage out there, and with Aubry being gone for a while, will put two and two together, and figure she’s practicing for the challenge. The answer to her alibi comes in the second part of the advantage. Since Aubry squandered her extra vote, karma dictates she now will said extra vote to someone still in the game. Thus, Aubry can reveal THIS advantage to the others on Edge of Extinction, stopping people looking, and hiding her more valuable practice advantage. The only question now is who gets the extra vote advantage. If Rick told Aubry he willed her the advantage, my money’s on him getting it, since there’s reciprocity and possible alliance building there, plus there was probably some bonding going on on Edge of Extinction. If not, I’d say Aurora, Aubry’s one ally left in the game, will get it. Either way, it could shake up the solid majority, which Aubry will need if she hopes to have a chance, assuming she gets back in the game.

Our immunity challenge today comes circa “Survivor Cagayan”. Tribe members will stand on tiptoe, holding a wooden block to the top of a frame. Should they or the block fall, they’re out. Not a bad challenge, but unexciting overall, save for our promised medical emergency later on.

In a challenge like this, the unworthy are weeded out fairly quickly. Thus, we come down to our foursome of David, Victoria, Aurora, and Lauren. Unsurprising, as the skinniest tend to do best in this challenge, though I don’t get Aurora’s derisive comment about “Young, Skinny Girls”. Yes, Aurora, they’re younger than you, but don’t sell yourself short. You’re about the same size as them.

Prior to the episode, I’d bet on Ron being our medical emergency here, but his early dropout precludes this possibility. Instead, talk from Lauren earlier about starving and not winning reward gives us our answer. Shortly after David falls, she talks of being dizzy and having trouble seeing. Normally, this would be the point where I’d suggest stepping out of the challenge, but either Lauren is not me, or she just didn’t have the energy to do even that. Either way, she falls suddenly to the ground. Probst, ever the professional, handles the situation with his usual grace and charm, making sure she’s well taken care of, and focussing primarily on Lauren’s struggle until she’s cleared by medical. Shades of the fall of Russell Swan (“Survivor Samoa”) flash before our eyes, but really, we all knew she’d be fine. There was still a half-hour left in the episode. I will still give this scene credit, though. It kept the drama high, pulled no punches, and portrayed things realistically, but not fantastically. My only editing note here is that the “dizzy” effect as Lauren fell was unnecessary. The fall on its own was scary enough.

That said just because the editors made few gaffes doesn’t mean that no one else did either. Specifically, Aurora takes the time as soon as Lauren falls to ask that Victoria steps down, and give her immunity Aurora points out that she was left out of the last vote, and needs comfort. A solid argument, and I’d argue the smart thing to do would be for Victoria to step down, to prevent Aurora feeling like she needs to flip. However, Aurora, NOW IS NOT THE TIME! While you definitely should have this conversation, wait until Lauren is either cleared or evacuated. The trouble with talking about it now is that you come off both as an attention-hog, and indifferent to the suffering of others. You may win immunity tonight, but you suffer on the jury for it. Julie in particular is indignant at how Aurora goes on about this. Again, definitely a conversation that needed to be had. Just not right that second.

Aurora does end up winning immunity, and so our Kama members now talk of splitting the vote. Victoria and Aurora argue for going all-in on Kelley, but Eric and Ron insist that the vote split happen, confident as they are in Rick and David. While Rick I can considering solid, I don’t get how David is considered solid at this point. Add onto that the possibility of Aurora flipping, which is made all the more likely given that Aubry gives her the extra vote, and I’d say the numbers are too much in flux for a vote split to be wise at this stage. Yes, it does make it easier for Kelley and Lauren to save themselves via idol, but the numbers just don’t add up right now. Kelley and Lauren do talk about using their idols, but also say they don’t want to use both. I can understand the sentiment, but really, I think at this point they should be spent. They’re a valuable tool, but doing so now all but guarantees you a majority, which is more valuable than any idol any day.

That said, Wardog is not content with only that as misdirection. He wants to try and get those perceived to be on the bottom of Kama moving, and plants the idea in Julia and Gavin’s heads that Eric and Ron are keeping Rick and David around so that, come time for the so-called “Civil War”, they’ll have numbers. Which is true. Given how close Gavin and Eric have been shown to be, I don’t see Gavin biting. Julia’s another matter, though, and she at least takes the time to go to Eric, casually floating the idea of getting rid of David as a safe vote. Eric shoots this idea down, and reminds Julia that this is the safe path to the family visit. The family visit is something he and Ron have been using throughout the episode to ensure loyalty, and while by no means a new strategy, and definitely a smart one, it sickens me nonetheless. The trouble is that this strategy promotes less active gameplay. People aren’t playing to win, they’re playing to see their family. Again, good if you’re one of the few strategists in that group, bad if you’re a viewer. This talk leads Julia and Gavin to consider flipping and voting out Eric or Ron tonight, which I don’t buy one bit. As mentioned earlier, we’re more than halfway through the season, and NOW you’re going to start thinking for yourselves, with this many numbers left? Nuh-uh. Not happening. Victoria shooting the idea down is just the confirmation we need. At least we still have the idol play misdirection to keep us interested.

Tribal Council is a well-played affair, but a bit generic for all that. It basically boils down to both sides trying to get someone to flip, Lesu for dominance, Kama for security. I do have to laugh, though, at Ron stating that there are “Limited spaces available” in his alliance, to which Wardog retorts that he hasn’t been offered a space. While this ended here, and it would have been horrible from a strategy perspective, I do wish Ron had come back with “Some restrictions may apply”. Would have been hilarious.

Following a good bit of tension, neither Lauren nor Kelley play their idols. Clearly, they are braver than I. That said, it turns out to be unnecessary, as the insurrection was more imminent than I thought. Eric ends up getting the boot, and while I’m not sure it was the smartest move from a strategy perspective, as the Lesu foursome (I’m discounting Rick at this point) are now the most solid group left, I can’t deny I’m happy. Between Eric, Kelley, and Lauren, Eric brought the least from an entertainment perspective. Plus, as mentioned, this does shake up the strategy. This, in turn, makes the season less predictable than it was shaping up to be, something it DESPERATELY needs if it has any hope of redeeming itself.

Before we get to my overall thoughts, though, I think we’re long overdue for a…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Today we’re talking about season logos, a topic I really wanted to cover last episode, due to Rick’s pointing out that the season logo revealed the “Edge of Extinction” twist in a subtle, but clever, way. However, I felt like I didn’t have enough time then, and so held off. I do now, though, and it’s only one episode late, so let us talk about the best and worst logos this show’s ever done. Only rule here is that I’m excluding the logo from “Survivor Borneo”, since, as the original template logo, it’s both the most basic, but also necessary, logo when compared to the others. Beyond that, let’s rank these suckers!

TOP 5

5. “Survivor Edge of Extinction”: Where better to start than the logo that inspired this list? Unlike the other logos you’ll see tonight, this one took a while to grow on me. I thought the coloration was too light, and it just looked generic to me. I didn’t really warm to it until I realized that the logo was asymmetrical. Oh, not in that the figure at the top is off-center, but that the sticks on either side are different. One is a torch, for in the game, and another is a sail, for out of the game. As Rick himself said, a clever way of hinting at the twist. That I can get behind.

4. “Survivor Ghost Island”: This logo is in many ways the same and the opposite of the previous logo at once. It’s dark in coloration, but also subtle in its way. At first glance, it’s just a figure on some rocks, silhouetted by the moon Then, when you look closer, you realize that the figure and the moon make a skull shape. Now that’s just clever. It does lose points, though, for being a bit too dark. I like me some colorful logos.

3. “Survivor Africa”: This logo is an early one, but I’d argue it’s the exemplar for the “Animal Outline” logo the show is fond of. It was a staple of most early seasons, but I think this one did it best. It kept things simple, yet colorful. It was interesting to look at, and immediately brought “Africa” to mind. Just as a good logo should.

2. “Survivor Exile Island”: Part of the reason “Survivor Ghost Island” is lower on the list here is that, while skulls are cool, skulls and sharks are cooler. True, Ghost Island wins on subtlety, but unlike in strategy, when it comes to aesthetics on “Survivor”, you don’t want subtlety: you want over-the-top awesome. This season logo does that well, while simultaneously highlighting the theme of the season as a whole. It misses out on the top spot, though, for the unnecessary “Panama” cluttering up the bottom of the logo. Just have “Exile Island”. That’s how we’ll remember it anyway.

1. “Survivor China”: This is probably the logo that dives most into the aesthetic of the location, to the point where even the traditional “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast” words are replaced with Chinese characters. What I like about this logo the most, though, is how intricate it is. You can stare at it for a long time, and still find little details you missed on first glance, such as the unique touch of having no border but the outer one. Normally this would make the logo cluttered, but the bright colors against the black and gray make this logo work in generalities as well. For something so intricately designed, only the top spot will do.

Honorable Mention: “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”: This is the logo I so badly wanted to put in the top spot, as it most fits the theme of the season. There are silhouettes, sure, but they’re not centered. Rather, each team has outlines of the players on each side, done in such a way that you can even identify who’s who if you look hard enough (Colby, Rupert, and Russell all particularly stand out). This makes the logo a fun little game, as well as appropriate to the season. But sadly, this was not the only logo the season had. It also, unfortunately, had a generic logo with generic silhouettes. As I’m not sure which is the official logo, and the latter is so lazy, I can’t put this season on the list proper. But I can acknowledge it here.

BOTTOM 5

5. “Survivor Redemption Island”: This logo tries to do the “asymmetrical” thing, and up top it works. Granted, it’s still just generic silhouettes, but it still kind of works. What irks me, though, is the crocodile at the bottom. It covers up part of the word “Outlast”, and that just rubs me the wrong way. Get creative, but don’t block out your own logo in the process. That’s just disrespectful.

4. “Survivor Fiji”: Again, this one was close to good, were it not for a couple of details. The primary color on this logo is brown, which is kind of ugly, but could be forgiven. Less forgivable is some of the lazier elements here. Fijian war clubs feature prominently on the logo, and had the been left alone, I would probably like it ok. Ominous and appropriate to the season, after all. But instead there’s some sort of clip art that always reminded me of a tv remote over them, and it just feels lazy and distraction. The unappealing color is just icing on the cake.

3. “Survivor Guatemala”: How well the elements of your logo are integrated matters a great deal. This season starts off ok in that department, with the font matching the season well, and the temples rising from the jungle featuring pretty naturally with the logo. But then they just stick that random head on the logo, and it just doesn’t mesh at all, ruining an otherwise perfectly serviceable logo.

2. “Survivor Caramoan”: This was the point where you could tell the show was running out of ideas. You’d think the move to the Philippines would have given them new aesthetic ideas to work with, but nope! We get generic tikis again! Worse, these tikis aren’t even well-drawn, looking more cartoony than anything. Needless to say, not a good look for “Survivor”.

1. “Survivor Gabon”: If it’s possible for a logo to fall into the “Uncanny Valley”, then this logo does it. It follows the standard logo formula: Animal against an appropriate background. But, rather than go the dignified silhouette route, they instead made the gorilla in this case photo-realistic, which just felt wrong. It was too close to a regular logo to be its own thing, but not close enough to be accepted. I get wanting to highlight to move to HD, but this was a major misstep in doing so.

Honorable Mention: “Survivor Cook Islands”: Honestly, this one is not that bad a logo, just kind of generic. People rowing to shore from a ship. Fits the season, but not all that exciting. Really, though, the big sin is just that “Survivor Pearl Islands” did this idea already, and did it better. As a consequence, this season and logo don’t stand out, though really, there’s nothing wrong with either of them.

This episode is the best we’ve had in a while, despite some major flaws. Most of the good moments were loaded in the front half, and the back half was almost too chaotic to follow. Still, the good moments at the beginning were really good, and with the promise of unpredictable votes going forward, this season is, at last, taking the right steps to salvage itself.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.