Idol Speculation: “Survivor Winners at War” Episode 13: Slash, Burn, and Salt the Earth

Congratulations to user AubreyDeservedToLoseKaohRong for correctly identifying the last blog’s title quote as coming courtesy of Cirie Fields, circa “Survivor Micronesia”!

As we’ve got a two-hour episode (more or less) to cover, we skip any sort of clever introduction, and start right off with the fallout from the previous Tribal Council. Jeremy laments to the universe that he’s always the target, and wonders why this is. Well, Jeremy, perhaps it’s because you’re a likable challenge threat with a ton of friends on the jury. Shield strategy or not, that fact doesn’t change, and having now one with that strategy only makes it more obvious. I understand a bit of self-pity given the situation, but at least be realistic self-pity.

More pressing is the 50/50 advantage that Jeremy is still holding. Michele asks for it back, and Jeremy unsurprisingly acquiesces. I can definitely see some people calling it a bad move, particularly given how this half of the episode works out, but honestly Jeremy had no choice here. Even if he stubbornly held onto the advantage, he loses his only true ally in doing so, giving him no bargaining power, and at best a SHOT at safety for one Tribal Council. Better to give it back and try and work something else out.

Bamboo shots echo in the morning, and a cut to Ben might have you believe we’re back on “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers” and about to have an emotional moment. The emotion will be there, but not from Ben. Instead, Denise has found her moment of zen, talking about wanting tattoos of “Endure” and “Let Go”, one on each hand, to help symbolize her desire to keep going in this game, but her acceptance if it doesn’t work out. She settles for painting it on a board instead, which is probably the longer smart-term decision. Probst is probably cursing right now that he never became a licensed tattoo artist so he could boat out to camp and offer to tattoo Denise on the spot.

In keeping with the theme of humanizing moments, we cut to Jeremy and Tony having an argument about how many days are in a week. Yes, really. This is a point of contention in the world of Tony. He considers the week the work week, while Jeremy counts the weekend. I would point out how stupid this is of Tony, but it’s clear from their demeanor that the two are just having fun, bringing up the traditional cop/firefighter rivalry you sometimes hear about. It’s all in good fun, and like Denise’s moment earlier, really helps humanize the contestants.

Strategy is never far from Tony’s mind, however, and so he and Sarah go off to talk about who should go next. Tony wants to keep Jeremy around as a number, and is worried if he goes that the “hyenas” will come after players like himself. Geez, I thought we’d killed this metaphor! Look, I understand what Tony’s getting at, but I’m tired of the talk of “lions and hyenas”. There’s just only so far you can go with that metaphor, and I want some variety. I like “The Lion King” as much as the next guy, but there are limits, people! The pair eventually settle on Nick, as he doesn’t have them as part of his endgame strategy, and as a consensus boot. The trouble with this is that Ben really wants Jeremy out, and as Sarah puts it, Ben needs to be in the driver’s seat at least some of the time, or he’ll betray them out of sheer frustration. Thus, she talks to Ben, trying to convince him that HE wants to vote out Jeremy. At least, that’s what she TELLS us she does. What we see is her outlining the reasons Nick needs to go, rather than letting Ben come to that conclusion on his own, thinking it was his idea. Still, it seems to work, partly because Ben is not as emotional a player as others make him out to be. Ben is on board, and the plan is set. The only way this could possibly go wrong is if Nick wins immunity.

Shock of all shocks, this challenge plays to Nick’s strengths! Players must toss a ball into a gutter, then race underneath said gutter to catch the ball, with trip bars along the way. They then dig under a post to get to a slide puzzle, which they must solve to win immunity and two fire tokens. This is where Tony’s win streak comes to an end, I fear. Puzzles have always been his Achilles’ heel. Remember that one slide puzzle where he just slid any piece he could with no rhyme or reason? Probst certainly does, and will bring it up over and over like Tony is Will Wahl (“Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”), and the puzzle is alcohol. To his credit, Tony has at least improved his puzzle technique, if not his results, working slowly and methodically. Nick still wins, but it’s a further testament to how Tony has changed up his game from the first time out. Kudos for that. We even get in one more humanizing moment, with the whole tribe going in to comfort Michele, the only one who couldn’t get to the puzzle, and breaks down crying because of it. This might seem odd until you remember that a string of immunity wins helped propel Michele to her original victory. It’s one thing she has to be proud of, and having such a big loss as a result can only be devastating.

Also, say what you will about this season, but it has bucked the recent trend of immunity winners being irrelevant. Granted, we now have the equally predictable “The person who needs immunity wins it.” trend, but at least it’s different.

Back at camp, we initially settle on a consensus boot of Denise, thereby assuring us that Denise will survive this Tribal Council. After all, when this season was the first name thrown out the name anyone actually went with? No, the issue here seems to be that, while Ben has a final three deal with Sarah and Tony, he also sees Denise as a number for himself, and doesn’t want her to go. Ok, when did Denise become a number for Ben? Moreover, when did Ben get into a final three deal with Sarah and Tony? I’ll tell you when. Pregame alliances. Word on the street is that Ben in particular is someone everyone wanted to align with coming back, and so he was a part of a number of deals. Denise falls into a similar category. All this is fine, except that it makes these narratives seem to come out of nowhere. Suddenly these people are aligned, and the show acts like they’ve always been aligned, even though it was never shown until now. And I’m not naive; I know that pretty much every returnee season has some form of pregame alliance going in, but at least those seasons made an EFFORT to conceal it. They gave us some reason, however cockamamie, that the alliance came together. That’s far more than what I can say we got here. Yes, folks, even with a two hour episode, we STILL leave out crucial information. Don’t get me wrong: what we got in exchange, particularly the emotional, private moments with the players, is great. But this should not be an either/or situation, particularly with the extra-long episode.

Getting back to the strategizing, the reluctant decision is made to go for Jeremy, splitting the vote (guys for Jeremy, girls for Michele) to ensure that the 50/50 advantage doesn’t screw anything up. But then Ben tries to get cute. He wants to make absolutely sure that Michele does not play her advantage on Jeremy, and so decides to pit them against each other. He tells Jeremy to ask Michele for her advantage, then privately tells Michele that Jeremy is after her and will ask for her advantage to make her vulnerable. On paper, this is actually a fantastic plan. Cover your bases, and make the person you most want to go home go home. Artfully done, it can work wonders. Look how Ken Hoang (“Survivor Gabon”) effectively turned Sugar against Ace with a similar move. The flaw here is that this sort of move requires artistry, and Ben, as we’ve established, is not subtle. Ken Hoang he ain’t. Jeremy and Michele of course compare notes about the obvious ploy, and so set things in motion against Ben. With the way the split vote will work tonight, they just need one guy to turn against the group to gain the upper hand. Nick is their go-to guy, pitching the Ben vote out.

Nick thus finds himself in the swing vote position, and really has no wrong choice. On the surface, Ben would seem the obvious choice to go. Nick wants to be in with Tony, but with the final three deal we talked about earlier, Nick’s only shot at that is to take out Ben. Plus, it takes out an idol with him, making for less confusion, as Nick points out. However, Nick’s not necessarily going to see it that way, and for perfectly legitimate reasons. He presumably doesn’t know about either the final three deal or the idol, and so voting out Ben is merely voting out an annoyance. Meanwhile, you’ve pissed off several people for betraying them, and find yourself in a 3-3 split rather than a solid majority. Granted, Denise probably flips back with you, Michele, and Jeremy in that scenario because she’s not stupid, but still, no need to rock the boat unnecessarily. Again, hindsight is 20/20, and I’m sure many will say that Nick did a dumb tonight, but for my money, both decisions were a good one for him.

Like so many before it, this Tribal Council is a good microcosm for this episode as a whole. What it lacks in excitement it makes up for in heart. We don’t get the theatrics we’ve become accustomed to on this season. Indeed, even Probst comments on how subdued things are. The stand-out moment, then, is Probst talking with everyone about their PTSD, and trouble trusting once they come back from the game. Ben, Jeremy, and Nick all give very moving speeches about how hard it was to trust anyone when they returned from the game. Again, it goes a long way towards humanizing these contestants, and shows us a side of them we don’t normally get to see. I’m all for it. That, plus good mystery as to who goes, gets this Tribal Council a good grade from me. Michele uses her 50/50 advantage on herself, which I applaud her for doing. In these uncertain times, it’s the only smart move, but one that doesn’t ultimately help her much, as we’re about to see.

In the end, Nick decides to go with what the audience knows is the worse move, but the better one from Nick’s perspective. Yes, Jeremy is gone, and while I like the guy, I can’t say I’m too sorry. The trouble was just how much his name kept coming up. If this storyline came up over and over again, we’d eventually become numb to it. Jeremy left at just the right time to keep his boot interesting. He unsurprisingly wills his tokens to Michele, and then heads to the Edge of Extinction.

Koru, following that performance, decides to show us the entire emotional spectrum. On the one hand we have Tony and Jeremy giddily celebrating a successful move pulled off. The fact that they each have an idol is a plus, as now they’ve got even further safety. Contrast with Michele, who decides to give us a crash course in “pissed off”. She literally states that she wondered if Nick would have “The balls” to come and talk to her. Strong language, Michele! Children watch this show! In all seriousness, Michele has some good insight here, pointing out that Nick now effectively has no way to the end. He may not have seen the Ben-Sarah-Tony final three deal, but Michele certainly has, and with no bargaining chip to sway Denise, their options are limited.

Thus, Michele does what I wished the entire tribe of Zapatera would do for the post merge of “Survivor Redemption Island”, and throw caution to the winds. With basically no prospects, she decides to wear her heart on her sleeve, and hope to stir up enough resentment at camp to make something happen. A risky strategy, but with the majority seeming to be this solid, I’m not sure Michele has a better recourse. Sarah becomes Michele’s primary target, mostly because she rises to the bait so easily. The pair get into an argument, and just when I think Michele might be going a bit far, she dials it back and brings up a good point. She notes that Tony is the one seen to be in the driver’s seat, and so will be the one to win in the end. Sarah counters that he’s not the only one, but Michele correctly points out that perception is all that matters (hence Adam’s win on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X” despite very few of his plans actually working), and Tony is the one seen to be calling the shots. An avenue of conversation that might not have opened up had Michele not goaded Sarah into an argument. Sarah takes this information… and runs straight to Tony with it. Ok, I know Tony has been playing well overall this season, but why is everyone around him acting like an idiot! I could understand giving him a pass when he was keeping himself calm, but when he started going back to his usual mode of operation? And now seeming to be playing circles around everyone? Why is Tony only NOW being brought up as a target? It’s not like everyone knows about his idol. There’s no reason NOT to target him when he’s immune.

Sigh. We cut over to the Edge of Extinction, get our moment of zen with Ethan and Yul meditating, before cutting over to our scavenger hunt for the day. The clue indicates that everyone should look for a “Throne of Stone”, which sounds like something out of Authurian Legend. Surprised they didn’t save that one for a season with Coach on it. Wendell gets out into a lead in the race for it, but Natalie uses her superior knowledge of the island to locate the correct rock. I’ve said before, and I will say again: Natalie is KILLING the Edge. She seems to have found her element, and is holding up surprisingly well given her length of time out of the game. Natalie’s advantage is another one to sell to a player. Basically, the player who buys it can hold someone up in the immunity challenge. Who gave the disadvantage will remain anonymous, but this late in the game, such things do not come cheap. The player it is ultimately given to, Nick (there’s a bit of debate, but as those on the Edge see those left as one big glob with no real animosities, it’s simply a matter of “who can give us the most fire tokens”) is charged 8 tokens, outpacing the six he has. Tony’s broke, meaning Nick turns to Michele. Her elation on hearing he has an advantage turns to disappointment when she hears exactly what it is. After all, it can’t exactly make someone immune. However, since there’s not much else to spend them on, Michele coughs up the tokens. Nick says he’d like to use the disadvantage against someone who would take it poorly, and likely cause chaos at camp. I’d personally go for Tony, in that case.

At our challenge, we find out that Ben got the disadvantage. Not a bad call for causing chaos, and given that Nick has taken over Jeremy’s mantle of “Hating Ben”, I can understand the temptation. That said, I think Nick is going to wish he had given it to Jeremy, for reasons that will become clear after the challenge. The challenge itself? The domino chain challenge first seen on “Survivor Gabon”, with this particularly lame iteration coming courtesy of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. A flat platform, and only leg trip wires for the platform. This challenge was much cooler when it was, you know, challenging.

Case in point, this challenge is so easy that Ben, who had his platform lengthened due to the disadvantage, still managed to come in a close second. And Ben is not exactly known for his dexterity or ease of movement. Who does win? Why Michele of course, continuing once again the trend of the person needing immunity winning it this season. Michele makes a point of noting that no one claps for her win, leading to belated, half-hearted clapping. Good social observation there, Michele. I mean that sincerely.

This is why giving the disadvantage to Ben (who does try and find out who gave it to him, but was rebuffed by Probst) is a problem for Nick. Ben was so close on that challenge, it’s fair to say he would have won but for that disadvantage. If he wins, Michele most likely goes home. However, with Michele winning, Nick is now the primary target. He’s oddly happy about it, since he sees it as something happening in the game. Guess the poor guy really can’t read the room, can he? He certainly can’t see through Denise, who makes a big show about being the obvious target, and just wants a full meal of rice before leaving, offering to spend her remaining tokens on more rice. Can’t fault that, since Probst said today was the last day for them to spend tokens on anything. Denise tells us, though, that she’s running a false flag operation, and the plan is to go for Nick. Fair enough, but I have to say, I think she oversold it. The others seem to buy it, though, so good for her.

With Nick now firmly in the hot seat, what could give us some mystery? Why, Denise ACTUALLY becoming a target, of course. Tony once again returns to his spying roots, and it pays off. Denise, Sarah, and Ben all have a conversation at the water well, where Denise proposes a final three deal between them. She correctly argues that Tony is unbeatable at at the end. We don’t see how they react, because we have to follow Tony. He correctly surmises that this means Denise is a threat, and needs to be taken care of. He and Sarah discuss the possibility of actually going against Denise tonight. Definitely a threat to be aware of, but with someone from Edge of Extinction on the horizon to return, I’d say it’s too risky to pull off tonight. Trustworthy or not, Denise is a loyal number for now, which is more than can be said for Nick. Vote her out, and it’s all too easy for the Edge of Extinction returnee to strike up a final three deal with Nick and Michele. It’s beneficial for all involved. Thus, you must risk a rock draw, and while Tony and Ben have idols, why take a risk you don’t need to? With Denise still in the game, the Edge of Extinction returnee has nowhere to go. Granted, this overheard conversation does mean that for Tony, Denise needs to go sooner rather than later, just perhaps not at the final six. And no, I’m not just talking as a Denise fan here.

Tribal Council is once again subdued, and with good misdirection, but unlike the first, there really is no stand-out moment. We do get a good dissection of Denise’s vernacular in her attitude towards the game at this point, but that’s to be expected. Unexpectedly, Nick goes home, probably the first time this season the obvious boot went home. I’m not sorry to see Nick go. He was never one of my favorite winners, and this episode really drove home how out of his depth he was. The man was just completely unaware.

We cut to the Edge one final time, as Amber gives a fairly touching bittersweet farewell, capped off with everyone cheering “See you never, Edge!”Nick talks about wanting to win his way back in, but that will be an uphill battle. You see, you need fire tokens for advantages in the challenge and Nick, now voted out, has none. A few players, like Boston Rob, Tyson, Yul, and Parvati are able to buy themselves an advantage in the challenge, but they pale in comparison to Natalie’s three, plus an idol, due to her whopping 14 tokens! And that’s not all! Remember those idols she and Rob bought for the previous challenge? Those are still good! So Natalie actually buys an idol FOR TYSON! WHAT?

Ok, this is the one thing this episode that really pisses me off. Why are those idols still good? They were paid for for the initial challenge! After that they should be done! Kaput! Start from scratch. Make like on the Edge, and coming back from it, challenging! You know, CHALLENGE? THAT THING THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION? REMEMBER THAT? Yeah, show, you’re really not selling yourself well that this is anything but an excuse to keep from losing early favorites.

Our last 10 minutes or so are devoted to a recap of the season, and a preview of what’s to come. When I saw this I was initially annoyed, feeling like we were cheated out of other content, but since this is usually done for the finale, I can’t be too mad. I will be if they do it again at the start of the next episode, but if not, I’m ok with losing 10 minutes of this episode to gain 10 minutes of the next one.

Speaking of gained minutes, that’s really the crux of what I have to say about this episode. If there’s one problem plaguing the show since the post-merge, it’s lack of time. Everything feels squished and condensed with so many people left in the game, and storylines and alliances just seem to come out of nowhere. Take Natalie giving Tyson an idol. Why Tyson? When did they specifically bond beyond just being two more people on the Edge of Extinction? We saw more of Natalie and Parvati together than Natalie and Tyson. Why did Natalie not buy an extra idol for Parvati? For that matter, when did Ben, Sarah, and Tony form a final three deal? WHAT IS GOING ON?

Ahem… Anyway, point is that I’m not sure how long an episode needs to be in order for the story to make sense, but two hours clearly isn’t enough. Still, this episode did give us good heartwarming moments, and even bits of levity, which have so far been this season’s biggest strengths. I’ll get into this more next week when I discuss the season as a whole, but this has been a strange season, to say the least.

Normally this is where I’d talk about who is most and least likely to win at this point, but like on “Survivor Edge of Extinction”, I feel like I can’t do that. The returnee from the Edge changes so much, it seems a disservice to do so now. So, why not do what I did for that season, and list my most likely people to come back from the Edge? Simple. There’s not ranking to it. It’s going to be Natalie. Three advantages aside, she’s got the narrative of thriving on the Edge since the beginning, and has shown even in this episode that she’s still challenge dominance material. So no, no one else has a shot. It’s Natalie. Natalie. Natalie. Natalie.

Natalie is not the person who gave us this blog’s title, however, and it’s up to you to find the correct person! In the comments, give me the name of the person who gave us this week’s quote, and what season the quote was said on. The first person to do so gets their username posted at the top of this blog. I will see you in a week to talk about the finale, and the season as a whole.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor David vs. Goliath” Episode 9: Love, Labors Lost

Good night, sweet dunce, and a flight of Supergirls sing thee to the jury. Hope you enjoyed that eulogy, as there’ll be little mourning throughout the rest of this blog. Celebration at a fantastic episode? Yes, but no mourning.

Things are a bit shell-shocked at Kalokalo camp. Davie breaks the silence by explaining to everyone what went down and why. Davie’s a pretty good salesman here, talking about his move in a way that earns him credit, but doesn’t come across as obnoxious. Privately, however, Davie reacts how any “Survivor” fan would, jumping up and down and squealing about he major blindside he just pulled off. And just to rub salt in Angelina’s wounds, what item did Johnny Mundo bequeath to Davie? His jacket. Apart from showing that Johnny Mundo has a lot of class (and that this season has a jacket fetish), this is also a big middle finger to Angelina. I’m sure she’s busy making up a Davie voodoo doll right about now.

Of course, a vote of this magnitude does not leave the remaining allies unaffected. Alison, Alec, and Kara all commiserate about flipping to the former Davids. True, the former Goliaths still have the numbers, and an idol (Nick’s vote steal and Carl’s idol nullifier notwithstanding, since they have no way to know about either of those), but what the former Davids have is momentum. Bear in mind that on “Survivor”, perception can be reality, and the perception right now is that the former Davids are on the upswing. Thus, for a lot of the former Goliaths, the debate is not IF to flip, but WHEN. It’s a similar situation to “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” following the merge episode. Despite being down in numbers, the former Heroes really still had the edge. They’d burned the Villains idols, and given how divisive Russell Hantz could be (shocker, I know), they had the possibility to flip someone with relative ease. However, having just pulled off a major ousting of JT (a move that becomes less and less impressive with hindsight, but still awesome), the momentum seemed to be with the Villains, and so Candice ruined that plan (and, in my opinion, the rest of the season) by siding with them against her interest. Something similar is happening here, only with more concrete evidence.

Speaking of concrete evidence, even Dan, with his relative lack of knowledge of the game, can see the blindingly obvious. This Alison/Alec/Kara conversation doesn’t include him, and goes on for a fair length of time. Thus, he correctly concludes that he’s probably on the outside of their plans. Hmm, a smart, evidence-based conclusion that might lead to a shake-up in the alliance? There must be some way to ruin this…

Make it all about the romance, of course! While Dan is certainly upset about where this puts him in the game, he’s more upset that Kara isn’t there with him. He of course expresses this to Kara in the most whiny way possible, which naturally endears Kara to him! Wait, no, Kara actually makes SENSE, and is therefore turned off by this. In confessional, she states that she will sever ties with him, thus explaining why she and Alec became a thing prior to the season airing. For all my jibes, I actually really like this scene, even if I do feel a bit voyeuristic intruding upon what should by rights be a private moment. However, it’s by no means got extreme or sensitive material in the break-up (beyond your usual break-up emotions, of course), and they both knew what they were signing up for. What intrigues me, though, is that while we’ve seen a couple of romances bloom on “Survivor”, we’ve never really seen one die on “Survivor”. Afterwards? Too many to list. But during the show? That’s pretty rare, if not unique at this point. Usually if a romance ends, it’s due to one party being voted off, as opposed to them breaking it off prior to the vote, as happens here. Still, good for Kara for finally ditching the dead weight that is Dan (game-wise, not life-wise, of course).

Now we come to our reward challenge. It sucks. It is a hybrid, reused team reward challenge post-merge. In other words, every element I don’t like. I can at least say that they hybrid is from “Survivor Philippines” (the puzzle) and “Survivor Cagayan” (the obstacles of the obstacle course), which are good seasons to draw from, but still, you’re not winning me over on this one, “Survivor”!

At least the reward is nice. An open burger bar and drinks for everyone. Carl in particular is excited for the beer. Naturally, this means that when one person must sit out of the challenge randomly, and thus lose no shot at the reward, it’s Carl. He grumbles about it, doubtless thinking of the leftover beer from when Will Wahl (“Survivor Millenniams vs. Gen. X”), and Mike Yerger (“Survivor Ghost Island”) were players. The grumbling is such that it somewhat makes up for the fact that the show once again passes up a golden opportunity to let the sit-out bid on reward, thus adding choice and further stakes to the challenge.

Our teams consist of Christian, Gabby, Alison, Nick, and Angelina, against Davie, Alec, Dan, Mike, and Kara. Probst touts the physical prowess of the latter team, and for once it makes a difference. Not that the teams aren’t neck and neck most of the way, but for once, the team of puzzle experts did not win the puzzle. Nice shake-up. I particularly like how, when Alison gets a combination off of the opposing team’s already completed one, they distract Christian by randomly shouting numbers at him, thus somewhat negating the copying. Gabby gives us what SHOULD be our dejected confessional post-challenge, but is instead actually triumphant. Gabby, rather than curse the darkness, has chosen to light a candle. That candle of course being the candle of alliance-making.

Alison, who evidently still talks strategy with Gabby despite not seeming to want to ally with her, discusses her desire to make a big move, and talks about how voting out Angelina might have been such a move. Gabby, in one of the best bits of persuasion I’ve seen on this show, runs with that desire, but slowly starts to twist it to her advantage. From the vantage point of the former Davids, any former Goliath going home is good. Remember, though, that Angelina is a divisive figure. Take her out and the majority loses a number, and they reconvene easily. Take out someone like Dan, however, and you lose a lot of the glue that holds together the alliance (Mike would arguably be better for this purpose, as he’s the most gung-ho about “Goliath Strong”, but I can understand not wanting to take out someone who in the past at least considered working with you). While we in the future who have seen the full episode know that this persuasion ultimately fails, in my opinion, this is a crash course on how manipulation should be done on “Survivor”. Subtle, yet present. Gabby didn’t do much, didn’t even really propose a formal plan to Alison. She listened and had a real conversation with the lady. Then, when an opening was there, she made a suggestion (not a command, mind you, a suggestion) that on the surface seemed to further Alison’s game. Gabby, from Alison’s perspective, is not telling her what to do, but instead just trying to better her (Alison’s) game. What Gabby is really doing, however, is switching Alison to the target of HER (Gabby’s) choice. And Alison probably doesn’t even know it. THIS is the Gabby I adore. THIS is the Gabby I want to see more of. I like this manipulation so much that I can even forgive Alison bringing up the lens of the “big move”.

Over at the reward, Mike opines that rewards are for two things: eating and talking strategy. I’d argue they’re also for hunting for idol clues, but maybe Mike is more of an old-school fan. In any case, once Davie goes to take a walk, Mike jumps in on more of the “Goliath Strong” talk, though this time an actual incentive is presented. Rather than just being a case of “original tribe loyalty” Mike points out that if any of them want to win, they NEED to eliminate the former Davids. This actually makes sense. Everyone, even a winner, loves an underdog story. The David tribe had at least that advantage coming into the game, and so any original Goliath member would be a fool to go up against them. Kara, however, has also been bitten by the “big move bug”, and thus opines in confessional that she’s ready to flip.

Correctly surmising that the idol Davie played last episode is probably re-hidden somewhere, the former Davids get up bright and early to search for it. A good group effort, but nothing is found prior to breakfast. All pretense of subtlety forgotten, most of the former Davids give up and go to breakfast. Christian, however, decides to keep looking, surmising that as he already has a target on his back, there’s no harm in him looking willy-nilly. Christian also promises us an exciting new strategy in looking for the idol! Said strategy… is to look in a bunch of different places. How original. Christian eventually finds it in an odd-shaped tree (how original), and he celebrates. Moving on…

While still playing on a lot of common challenge elements, our immunity challenge is LEAGUES ahead of our reward challenge. This is somewhat damning by faint praise, but still worthy of some praise nonetheless Contestants balance a ball on a disk as they cross a teeter-totter. Once they have three balls across, they navigate the balls across a narrow, tilting table, getting them into designated slots, with the first person to nest their three balls winning immunity. Pretty standard challenge fare, but there are two things I like about it. First off, rather than the goal for the three balls being in a line, the goals are spaced throughout the table, so each ball must be taken farther than the previous one. Second, and more importantly, it’s not yet another endurance challenge! Have you noticed lately how nearly every immunity challenge post-merge is some form of endurance? Granted I LIKE endurance challenges, but you run out of ideas fast. This is a race, which adds variety to the competition.

A few people are in the race for the victory, though Alec, the clear frontrunner for a significant portion of the challenge, ends up taking it home. Probst, determined to drive this theme into the ground, points out how all immunity challenge winners at the individual state so far have been former Goliaths. Really, the only significance here is that Dan (another frontrunner in the challenge) did not win.

This is an interesting case on “Survivor”, where the outcome is incredibly obvious. At this point, we can pretty much guarantee that Dan is going home at this point. Last episode must have sucked all the mystery out of the show. So, rather than try and misdirect us, the show instead shows us in detail the journey of how we get there. And what a journey it is!

At first, said journey seems it will be straightforward. Kara and Alison talk with Gabby and Nick about wanting to get Dan out. Or I should say Kara talks. Alison listens, and starts to become concerned with how badly Kara wants to do this. This makes Alison take a step back and consider her move, which I’m in favor of. What I’m not in favor of is Alison saying this means she should stick with the former Goliaths, and that NOT making a move was her big move. Kara I could understand not wanting to flip. She has few relations with any former Davids now that Elizabeth is gone, and is tight with her original tribe. But Alison? Need I remind you that you were on the BOTTOM of the Goliaths? They didn’t want you in their core! Once again, proper moves are being made, but by the opposite people who should be making them.

Alison and Alec confer, eventually agreeing that Christian is still a bigger threat, and needs to go. To weigh in on Alec here, he’s pretty good either way. His name was mud as soon as he voted out Natalia, so he has no real loyalty to either side, making him the ideal swing vote. They bring Kara in on it, and though she’s reluctant, she agrees to again target Christian. If the former Goliaths were subtle, this might seem like decent misdirection. However, they are not subtle, instead gathering together on the beach to discuss their plans. This does not go unnoticed by the former Davids, who then decide to pool their knowledge for options. Christian’s idol, Nick’s vote steal, and Carl’s idol nullifier all get brought out for consideration, with Gabby quickly leading the logical charge of “Use the vote steal, then play the nullifier on the stolen vote, since that’s where an idol is likely to go”. This, frankly is the most logical plan. True, it gets rid of two advantages instead of one, as playing Christian’s idol would, but it helps prevent a split vote from the former Goliaths, which is a real threat here. Plus, it makes sense that the idol would be played on the stolen vote, since they seem the obvious target. Now this, show, is how you use your advantages. Throw them out into the game, but let them ENHANCE the strategy, but not dominate it.

Tribal Council is a crash course in a tribe-split bantering. After some veiled sniping from both sides, and a demonstration that Nick is about as good as math as Brad Culpepper (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”) with him stating there is a 7-5 advantage when in fact it’s 6-5 at this point, we get into our arguments. Alison makes a comment about wanting to go, which Gabby chimes in is hard to trust when as soon as a former Goliath was targeted, the plan changed to Christian. Gabby then says that someone on the Goliaths is on the bottom, and should consider flipping. Dan makes the logical counterargument that this would just put said person on the bottom of the Davids. Carl and Davie then make the counter-counterargument that as the minority, the Davids have fewer options, and thus may be more fractured. My call in these situations is usually to flip, since you can say you were proactive about your game and worst, and maybe able to exploit a crack at best.

Doing the smart thing, Nick’s vote steal comes out. Naturally wanting to paint a target on someone, he steals the vote of… Alison. Ok, I can get not wanting to steal from the person you’re voting for, as it may be too obvious a target, but why go for someone you might want to ally with? Yes, piss them off! See where it gets you!

While his vote was not stolen, the vote steal still makes Dan paranoid, and he plays his idol on himself. A smart move, but unfortunately, a new twist rears its beautiful head. Probst pulls out the played idol nullifier, which it turns out was played on Dan, thus meaning his idol is void. This means it is time for a verdict on the idol nullifier, and I think we can say it had a good first outing! Apart from leading to a dramatic Tribal Council moment (with Probst flawlessly delivering the “…and this is the Idol Nullifier” moment within his usual idol speech), I think what wins me over here is the teamwork. Something like a hidden immunity idol, while stronger on its own, can be done without the need for a team to help you. It can give an underdog power just by possessing it. The idol nullifier, however, almost necessitates working with a team, as otherwise you’ll have almost no clue when to play it. This facilitates discussion between players, making things more interesting than just another game-breaking advantage. In short, the twist was used well, and I look forward to seeing it on other seasons.

This, naturally, leads to Dan’s demise. I have nothing for respect for the guy in real life, but I’m not sorry to see him go here. He was, at best, a mediocre player of “Survivor”, and brought little in the character department. Plus, if the eviction of John last week didn’t fracture the former Goliaths, this certainly will, and I look forward to watching the chaos unfold next week. Plus, like most people this season, Dan goes out with a lot of class, which helps with tricky evictions.

Next week may be the two-hour episode, but I feel this week and the previous one should have been combined, as they’re two opposite ways to make an interesting episode of “Survivor”. Last week had nothing but intrigue about the bot, though we had to go through convoluted hoops and deceptions of the audience to get there. This week had an obvious outcome, but a fascinating journey, and I would argue the stronger of the two for it. Let us hope the upward trend continues!

Sadly, though, “Idol Speculation” will not be there for it next week, at least not at the usual time. I work first shift at my job now, which makes staying up late to write a blog a risk at the best of times, and with a two-hour episode, just not feasible. I swear to you now that I will read no blogs and take in no opinions on the episode until I write my blog, but it won’t come out as soon as it usually does. Please be patient, my readers!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Ghost Island” Episode 7: Everybody Knew

HALLELUJAH! PRAISE JESUS! A savior has been found! A savior to deliver us from the greatest evil in the game of “Survivor”! Oh, not entitlement or reading the room completely wrong! No, no, the greatest evil in “Survivor” is horrible rap that no one acknowledges is horrible. But now, our lord and savior Wendell has brought us salvation! Praise be!

Ok, ok, enough with the gushing. Time for a “Survivor” history lesson: Back in the day, believe it or not, the merge was a big deal. The exact date it would happen was kept a secret, and the tribes were brought together in varied and unexpected ways. Unfortunately, the producers preyed on the apathy of the viewing audience, and so now all we get is people by boats arriving at camp. Hell, we’ve even dispensed with tree mail at this point. No foreshadowing, just opening on people on boats heading to the new camp. Hell, we don’t even get much in the way of pre-merge confessionals, mostly just Kellyn being happy that she gets to show off her social prowess, and Mike being happy at his new lease on life. I guess I can see the argument that one’s time can be better spent on other aspects of the episode, but it does make the whole thing lose some of its grandeur.

Evidently whoever’s voted out last before the merge gets to pick the merge camp, as everyone is moving to Naviti’s old beach. Domenick is of course happy to see Wendell, but his hackles go up at the sight of Chris. Did I mention that Domenick and Chris don’t like each other? Yes? I just wanted to make sure. It was pretty easy to miss. I mean, they only mentioned it EVERY GODDAMN EPISODE! Seriously, if that storyline hadn’t come to an end this episode, I would have been incredibly pissed off.

The contestants are told to go to the other side of the island for a surprise. I’m guessing the tree mails at the camps indicated that this was a merge, as the note for the feast does not use the term “merge”, yet everyone seems to feel it’s a merge. Mike takes this time to comment on wanting to be the “Youngest Player Ever”. I’m guessing he actually means “Youngest Winner Ever”, since while he is 18, there was no press hype about Mike being younger than Will Wahl. You remember Will Wahl? He was the guy who couldn’t drink alcohol on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”.

Sure enough, it’s a merge, with black buffs for everyone. And thus begins the speechifying, mainly by Domenick, trying to extend an olive branch of unity to the tribe, while still harboring some resentment towards Chris. Not to be outdone, Chris also starts speechifying on a similar topic, before devolving into “rappifying”. And I’ll give him credit, it’s better than his first attempt at rapping, though this is less due to his technique, and more due to the fact that he doesn’t misuse the phrase “diamond in the rough”.

Kellyn, prior to the feast, had made a comment about deciding where to sit socially. I, for one, would have been inclined to decide where to sit based on where an advantage is most likely hidden. Come on, with a setup this typical, there’s no way that the producers wouldn’t hide an idol or advantage, or a clue to one of these, in that feast. Inevitably, they do so, and Chris is our big winner this time. It seems that production thought the Chris/Domenick/Wendell battle was too one-sided in terms of advantages, and so throw Chris a bone. He’s told to go to tree mail, where he finds a note that says a boat will take him to Ghost Island tonight if he can sneak out of camp, and that he can find an idol there. This is an idol twist I can get behind. Apart from changing things up from you basic idol hunt or Ghost Island game that we’ve become accustomed to, it’s a much more high-risk way to get the idol than we’ve seen. We had something similar on “Survivor Cambodia”, but there, Jeremy didn’t have to hike too far from camp. He could leave without arousing suspicion. Here, Chris is likely to be gone for much longer, thus increasing the risk. Plus, and idol hunt amongst “Survivor” lore? Chris will doubtless have to use his in-depth knowledge of “Survivor” to find the correct thing that is an idol amongst a bunch of other, powerless idols, and this in no way is a setup for profound disappointment from this “Survivor” fan.

As has been demonstrated many times in the past, however, good old-fashioned social maneuvering can sometimes overcome advantages. Wendell, being the sensible one caught in this conflict, decides to try and bridge the gap between Chris and Domenick. After all, while the original Naviti enjoys an 8-5 majority over the original Malolo, infighting can make that majority go away quickly. Working together, even temporarily, can make the infighting much safer. So Wendell gets the pair of them to sit down. Domenick, putting on his diplomat hat, makes the offer to Chris to work together, at least for one vote, to avoid an original Malolo comeback. Chris takes this generous offer, and considers what to do with it. He could say “Yes”, even if he doesn’t trust it, in the hope that Domenick and Wendell will then not gun for him, and if nothing else, he’s no worse off. Instead, Chris goes full Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Cook Islands”) by taking this generous offer, shoving it back in the faces of those that made it, and giving them the proverbial finger just for good measure. Ok, even as someone hoping for the success of Domenick’s side, due to it including Wendell, I’m not a huge fan of Domenick. The guy really started this whole petty conflict when he could have just let it go at several opportunities, and digs himself into more holes than he needs to. Chris, despite a certain amount of arrogance, is at least not the primary aggressor in this conflict. But here? There’s no downside to Chris saying yes, even if he doesn’t mean it. It possibly helps get a target off of your back, and gives you more options down the road. And yet Chris says no? At this point he deserves to lose, even if just for the stupidity.

Oh, and just to add to the “Chris is a moron.” counter? He mispronounces “suave”. Ok, “beneficiary” I can kind of understand, at least that was a polysyllable, but “suave”. How did you even mess that up?

Night falls, meaning it’s time for Chris to make like Kelley Wentworth (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”), and be “Sneaky, Sneaky” and get out of camp. This he does, and is whisked off to Ghost Island, lit up in flame. All right, now THIS is where Ghost Island can be ominous in its full effect! Creepy shots of idols! Creepy shots of snuffers! A mad hunt as Chris walks up the stairs and finds the idol sitting out on a table just waiting for him. Wait, what?

Yeah, I must admit, I’m disappointed. Ghost Island, being so full of “Survivor” relics, would have been a fantastic location for a proverbial Easter Egg hunt, and I was excited to see what they do with it. Having the idol literally served up to Chris on a platter is a big letdown.

Thankfully, the show does make up for it somewhat. Chris has specifically found JT’s idol from “Survivor Game Changers”, aka an idol that was so badly misplayed that it loses power, and is only good at the upcoming Tribal Council. Not that this should matter much to Chris, since really this upcoming Tribal Council, with the merge having happened and physical threats now the major targets, there’s really no reason he shouldn’t play it at this upcoming Tribal Council, and thus it still fulfills its purpose to Chris.

Fortunately for the viewer, it doesn’t stop there, as Ghost Island has updated its game slightly. Chris can add to the number of Tribal Councils the idol can be used at by playing the 50/50 guessing game we’ve seen so far. However, there are now five rounds, with each consecutive win increasing the number of Tribal Councils the idol can be played at. Of course, the whole “Lost Vote” thing still applies. A bit of a debate for Chris, but on the whole, I’d say the smartest move is not to play. True, if Chris IS in the majority, it’s a solid one where his lack of a vote won’t really matter. However, with alliances so up in the air, it’s a risk, and one that Chris doesn’t really need to take. As I said earlier, there’s no reason Chris SHOULDN’T play this idol at the first available opportunity, and thus no reason to take the risk. It’s a decently large risk for a fairly small reward. Odds like that get Chris Noble’s blood a-pounding, and so he plays. To his credit, he does manage to win the first guess, gaining him TWO Tribal Councils to use the idol. Gambler’s fallacy does Chris in, though, as he switches sides for the second guess, and finds a “No Vote” parchment, thus screwing him potentially and assuaging everyone’s fear that the show was just bluffing about the “No Vote” thing.

We head back to the newly christened Lavita Tribe (whose name is neither good nor bad enough to comment on beyond this moment). What we have left before our immunity challenge is really just more of Chris and Domenick bickering. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and with one exception, none of it bears analysis. However, I will first applaud the editing here, as they show Domenick complaining about Chris’ arrogance, only to interrupt it with Chris comparing himself to Dwayne Wade. They even made it look like Domenick was somehow sitting in on Chris’ confessional. Priceless.

Somewhat more interesting is how this all turns to strategy. Since the old Malolo will likely be the swing votes here, Wendell sets out to court Libby and Jenna, evidently because Domenick would do more harm than good in this scenario. Wendell gives a good pitch, and Libby and Jenna consider it. However, while Jenna’s dislike of Chris is known, and Chris may be strong in the challenges, Libby makes the good point that Chris is kind of bad at the whole “lying” thing, and thus might be better to work with. A fair point. So fair, in fact, that I’ll call it here and say that it would be much better for the original Malolo to side with Chris in this scenario. Don’t get me wrong, Chris isn’t quite as much of a moron at strategy as these ladies make him out to be, but he’s still pretty bad. Add onto that the fact that, if the old Malolo can exploit this fracture, their only real threat is a bunch of advantages, then Chris is far and away the smart move. Chris has one idol that works at two Tribal Councils. Between them, Wendell and Domenick have two idols that can work at any time, plus a legacy advantage. Much more threatening.

As is standard at this point, our first individual challenge is an endurance one. Contestants will hold a pole over their head horizontally, with a totem balanced on one end, while standing on an increasingly smaller balance beam. Last one standing with their idol wins. I applaud the show for trying something new (again, wish they’d do that with the MERGE), but this challenge just falls flat. Like me, you may think that the players look like they’re holding boom mikes. That’s because this challenge was inspired by the people on the crew who hold the boom mikes. The trouble is, it kind of breaks the illusion of this being “reality” if you’re drawing from television culture rather than local culture. That doesn’t make this the worst first individual immunity challenge, and I don’t want to squash the creativity of the crew, but I expect better.

This challenge also gives us our first look at the new individual immunity idol, which I have mixed feelings on. On the one had, it does a lot that’s different from your usual idol. The centerpiece of the necklace, which usually points away from the neck, is now angled towards the neck of the wearer, giving this idol a distinctive silhouette. Plus, they’ve managed to recreate the season logo (at least the shadow part) on the idol which is wicked cool. That said, something about this idol just feels off to me. I don’t know, maybe it’s just too big, but despite the cool features previously listed, it just doesn’t sit right with me somehow.

One would expect an endurance challenge involving balance to come down to the ladies, and indeed it does, with Kellyn and Libby duking it out for the win. This creates an interesting dichotomy in what could happen. Kellyn is not really a target here, but Libby’s name was thrown around as a possible target should things go Naviti strong. Granted, nothing’s given us any indication that the vote would go for anyone but Chris or Domenick, but still. It’s a winner of no consequence versus a winner of possible consequence. The winner of no consequence wins out, as Kellyn takes the victory. Good for her.

Chris is the one to strike first back at camp, pulling in literally everyone back at camp save Wendell and Domenick on a trip to the well to discuss splitting the vote between the pair, so as to flush out the idol. To Chris’ credit, he does make a good pitch. An idol’s a threat, and it gives Domenick and Wendell a good amount of power that virtually no one else has. Plus, splitting the vote is a great way for Chris to hide his “No Vote” without looking suspicious. The problem here is that Chris is about as subtle as a Mack Truck (copyright Malcolm Freberg, “Survivor Philippines”), and everyone, including Wendell and Domenick, notice. Apart from alienating some people by Chris seeming to think they’re that stupid, this gives Wendell and Domenick time to confer. Wendell tells Domenick about his idol, which given the situation, I can’t hate. From the outside, things look pretty desperate for the pair, and the more information they have about what’s going on, the better to plot their move. The pair again pitch their plan to the others, but we don’t really get any word on how people feel about it. Frankly, it’s chaos back at camp, so much so that LIBBY’S name comes up just for simplicity. Seriously. The original Naviti women (Kellyn, Angela, Desi, and Chelsea) all say that voting for Libby might be the best strategy for now. An idea that seems ludicrous at first, as four is hard to make a majority out of 12, but between the split vote and idols it could happen.

Despite the confusion, things become clear when Domenick, Wendell, and Chris all talk about playing their idols tonight. This will effectively be a lesser version of Advantagegeddon. Domenick will rightly play his idol, which will lead Chris to play HIS idol just to be safe, which will lead Wendell to play HIS idol just to be safe, which will leave Libby in the crosshairs. Not quite as bad as Advantagegeddon, since it doesn’t make for an elimination by default, but still out there. I wouldn’t fault any of these guys for playing their idol. Given what we’ve seen between Domenick and Chris, it’s the smart move for both of them, and since the vote is likely to be split, both of them playing idols makes it smart for Wendell to play his idol.

As you’d expect, Tribal Council is an over-the-top fun debate between Domenick and Chris about who started what and when. We get some more attempts at diplomacy from Wendell, and color commentary from Libby about how good this is for the original Malolo, but frankly it’s SO crazy it all blends together. Thankfully, it’s an enjoyable crazy, since Chris and Domenick don’t seem to ACTUALLY hate each other, and are more in-game rivals than actually feuding. This means that we get good mystery at Tribal Council, rather than annoying blustering.

But, of course, the real highlight is the voting confessionals for this episode. We see three, and of those, only Chris’ falls flat. For the good ones, Domenick starts us off, following in the grand tradition of yelling your vote for all to hear, goes off on Chris yet again. An entertaining move, but not a smart one. Do you WANT the guy you’re trying to blindside to know your vote? Granted, Domenick doesn’t know about Chris’s idol, but still, seems like an unnecessary risk. The real highlight, as mentioned at the top of the blog, is Wendell. The normally calm and collected peacemaker starts off simple enough. He praises Chris’ strength, but then rightly gives him some criticism on being entitled and socially unaware. Had it stopped here, there’d really be no need to comment on it. Some justified criticism explaining a vote from someone whose vote we already knew. But then, Wendell goes off. We see his dark side. It seems that what gets under Wendell’s skin is what gets under all our skins. Poor quality rapping. And seriously, Wendell just goes OFF on the guy. He starts off with a harsh “Your rapping sucks. You suck at rapping.” But then it just keeps going. And going. And going! And it turns into a thirty-second diatribe against Chris’ rapping. You can’t write this stuff! Comedy gold! While I find “Survivor” funny, rarely does it make me laugh audibly. Yet I was busting my gut over this. One of the most entertaining things I’ve seen from this show for quite a while!

Now onto the playing of idols/advantages. After a decently long suspense-building pause, Domenick breaks first. He’s been wearing his fake idol around his neck pretty much all Tribal, but wisely decides to play his Legacy Advantage instead, which is a wise move. As I’ve said, Domenick needs to protect himself, and it’s better to use the thing that’s time-limited than the thing that can be used at any time. This, of course, leads to a cascade where Chris, and then Wendell, play their idols…

Wait, why is Jeff reading the votes?

Ok, I’ll admit it, they got me. This episode was pretty good about keeping things mysterious, but I was CONVINCED we’d get a triple idol play. It made sense both narratively and strategically. These guys have cajones of steel for not doing anything.

Of course, in Chris’ case, he SHOULD have done something. Maybe his brain is steel as well. I think I’ve made clear that his is the wrong move strategically for everyone but Domenick and Wendell (and, if the next episode preview is to be believed, it has a downside even for them), but as a viewer, I’m ELATED! Chris, while definitely a three-dimensional character, was still on the whole arrogant, condescending, and taking up too much time with the pointless feud. Now we can get on with the narrative. This felt like just the right amount of time for this feud to brew, and now we get a satisfying conclusion. Good job, show.

Oh, and Chris can’t rap. That’s another good reason to vote him out.

Interesting factoid: Chris now gets to join an elite group of players who exited the game without ever ONCE getting to cast a legitimate vote themselves. Surprisingly he is not the first, but he joins a small group nonetheless. His only companions in this area are Wanda Shirk and Jonathan Libby of “Survivor Palau”, Gary Stritesky of “Survivor Fiji”, Kourtney Moon of “Survivor One World”, Dana Lambert of “Survivor Philippines”, and Caleb Reynolds of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. And of these people, Chris is the only one attend Tribal Council (no, the schoolyard pick on “Survivor Palau” doesn’t count). Plus, for all you Chris fans out there, he gets to be on the jury, so don’t feel too sad for him.

Now, why do I say this move could be bad for Domenick and Wendell? Well, while Chris was a big threat to them, he was an annoyance and a distraction. Now, who are the biggest threats left in the game? Why, Domenick and Wendell of course! Granted, Wendell’s good socially, and both have idols, so they’re hardly in the worst shape ever, but I’m concerned for them next episode. Still, I’ve seen people come out of worse scrapes, so I’m not counting them out just yet.

But we’re talking about this episode, and while I was concerned for a bit, it ended up great! Things at the merge seemed fine enough, but very standard and even confusing at times. That Tribal Council redeems the whole thing, though. Exciting, mysterious, and an engaging climax! Who could ask for more? Well, you could ask for a…

TOP 5 AND… TOP 5?

Yes, it’s time once again for a list at the merge. Given my love for Wendell’s voting confessional, that means it’s doubtless time to talk about the best voting confessionals of all time. Since this list doesn’t lend itself well to the “Worst” ones, since it would just be me saying “they’re boring” over and over again, I’ll make this effectively a top ten. This category is pretty self-explanatory, so the only rule worth mentioning is that the limit is one per season. Apart from that, let’s get started!

10. “The ‘Outwit’ Part” (“Survivor Guatemala”): If I were doing “Honorable Mentions” on this list, this confessional would go there, but I’m not, so I’ll settle for putting it on the bottom. Brian Corridan was one of the wittier people on “Survivor Guatemala”, so it’s no surprise that his voting confessionals tended to be good as well. People may remember his “Golden Boy” vote a bit better, and I NEARLY put it on the list, but it seemed a bit forced to me. Brian, the self-proclaimed smart person of the season, saying to Bobby Jon, condescendingly “This would be the ‘Outwit’ part of ‘Outwit, Outplay, Outlast’” is more spontaneous and subsequently more funny to me. The problem? Despite Brian’s boasting, Bobby Jon wins out, since Brian goes home. Vastly detracts from the confessional, but funny nonetheless.

9. “You have made my life HELL!” (“Survivor Gabon”): There’s something inherently funny about people taking the “secret” vote and throwing the idea out the window. Crystal Cox’s vote for Randy Bailey does just that, and is funny enough to earn a spot on this list. That said, it DOES come across as fairly mean-spirited, and so I can’t give it too high a spot, but it’s too funny not to include here.

8. “Dragon Slayed” (“Survivor Tocantins”): Sometimes, simple is better. I’m in the camp that Coach’s whole “Dragonslayer” thing was forced and went on too long to really be entertaining. Still, if it had to last, this was a satisfying conclusion. Erinn Lobdell, someone looked down upon by the titular Coach, delivers the greatest comeback to the whole thing as she enacts her final vengeance. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of Erinn either, so this one doesn’t do it for me quite like it does for some other people, but like I say, it’s still quite good. Sometimes, the simple things in life are the best.

7. “This vote is a total bummer, dude.” (“Survivor Cagayan”): In keeping with the theme of “confessionals from people I’m not a huge fan of.”, we have a gem from Spencer of “Survivor Cagayan”. While I did fine Spencer enjoyable for humor, it was mostly humor directed at him rather than humor from him. What can I say, it’s funny to see a guy try and fail time and again. But credit where credit is due, Spencer did make me laugh at his vote-out with his impression of Woo. This is kind of an odd choice, since it has elements I said I didn’t like from previous entries. Specifically, it’s an unsuccessful, mean-spirited vote. What saves it is that I don’t feel like Spencer really thought he would be spared this vote, and so just wanted to go all out, and despite how mean it is, the impression is spot on. Plus, it adds to my theory that Spencer might have voted for Kass in the end had she been up against Woo, so there’s that.

6. “DENISE.” (“Survivor Philippines”): Like I said before, loud is good. Few people get louder than Jonathan Penner, and he even went so far as to turn around to make sure it was heard. Penner’s usually good for a laugh, and this time is no exception. Short, sweet, and incredibly funny.

5. “You can’t rap.” (“Survivor Ghost Island”): Need I say more about Wendell’s incredible voting confessional? While funny, it doesn’t quite measure up to the gems of yore in my opinion, but still comes pretty close. What it might lack in intensity in some places it makes up for in length. When you think it’s done, it just keeps going. And going. And going. And…

4. “You’ll still give me the money.” (“Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”): What list of quips would be complete without the great Sandra Diaz-Twine weighing in? In my opinion, this is the greatest Sandra badass moment there is. Rupert, having stupidly rejected an alliance with her, is voted out for his troubles. Sandra, to rub it in, notes that Rupert will vote for her regardless. Badass enough, but what makes it funny is that it comes to pass exactly as she says. Rupert realizes his mistake, and pays for it by voting for Sandra. That, my friends, is karma.

3. “You can always beat ‘em with these.” (“Survivor Micronesia”): Frankly, any confessional from the Erik Reichenbach boot would have worked, and if I didn’t have the one-per-season limit, Parvati’s would definitely be on here. As it stands, though, I have to give Cirie the edge for out-badassing Sandra. Cirie’s “Momma always said you can’t beat ‘em with these all the time, but you can always beat ‘em with these.” while first pointing to her muscles and then her brain was a good summation of Cirie’s character, and a badass callout. And bear in mind, these are compliments from someone who’s NOT a fan of Cirie, so that tells you how good it was, that it could break through the veneer of a non-fan.

2. “Checkmate, bruh!” (“Survivor Marquesas”): This confessional right here is why I say Sean Rector is funnier than Boston Rob. John Carroll’s downfall was a satisfying one, but this was just the cherry on top. Sean cockily (but not with bad sportsmanship) declaring his victory of John, while making references to both Vegas and Chicken and Waffles in one bizarre yet fascinating confessional. What could top it?

1. Casey Kasem (“Survivor The Amazon”): Kind of a cliche one to pick, but it’s a fan favorite for a reason. Rob Cesternino doing a spot on impression of a disc jockey to dis Roger Sexton on his way out is that one-of-a-kind comedy (and the rare non-sex-based comedy of this season), that will likely never be repeated. Mostly because of copyright reasons, but also because of Rob’s nearly unparalleled impression skills. He well earns the number one spot on this list.

Hoo, and there you have it. See you next week! May Chris’ rapping soon be forgotten!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you at the merge.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor MGX” Finale: All Steak and No Sizzle

Let it never be said that whining about “Survivor” on the internet got you nothing. As this finale clearly demonstrated, the editors have heard our complaints about the transparency of the victor, and so did a DAMN fine job of hiding the true victor from us. Hell, given who the final three end up being, I’d actually predicted CORRECTLY as of last episode, but went back on that when I calculated potential votes. THAT’S how good that misdirection was!

Want more evidence? There’s been complaints, even in this season, that saying that someone is definitely going means they’re safe. And yes, even in this episode, that’s sometimes the case. But, by and large, the cut and dried decisions go down exactly as planned. And that’s surprising! They’re fooling us by not fooling us. That is the level of meta that we have reached, but this is also taking away from the episode, and there’s a lot to cover.

Our finale kicks off to a good start with Bret in fine form about how STUPID it was to take out Sunday over David, comparing it to SEAL Team Six breaking into Osama Bin Laden’s compound, having him at gunpoint, and then giving up and going out for coffee. Incredibly insensitive? Perhaps, but it’s hilarious as all get out. Bret does get down to questioning Hannah about her motivations, and Hannah’s response is “It wasn’t the right time.” I guess I can see how that would make logical sense, but I have to ask, Hannah, when IS the right time? I’m all for waiting to make moves until the optimal time, but you’re running out of times to do it. David is THE major threat in this game, apart from Jay. One of those two needed to go. Better sooner than later.

Speaking of David, at this point his victory is all but assured. With this vote, it’s clear that he, Ken, and Hannah have an ironclad final three deal, so the only hope would be for Jay, Adam, and Bret to band together and force a tie. And given how much of a threat Jay is, that’s not happening. David’s already working on his victory speech (hell, we get to hear it a bit later in the episode), and picking a winner to emulate. In a somewhat bizarre choice, he chooses to go with Bob Crowley of “Survivor Gabon”. An underrated winner, in my opinion, but also one who’s not exactly well-remembered. No, David has been stealing bits and bobs from around camp and challenges, and has crafted himself a fake idol. And, I have to admit, it looks pretty good. At least in the dark. Of course, realizing that he is still at a minimum tied for biggest threat left in the game, David keeps the idol for himself to use as a bluff, since that would be the smart thing to do, and David usually does the smart thing.

But no, instead he hides it for someone else to play. I fail to see how this is any way helps David other than adding a bit of hilarity. I suppose David has a valid point of stopping people looking for idols, but as David himself admits, he feels there are no idols left. So, what are they in danger of finding? But even David brings out some smartness from stupidity, painting a little logo on a rock to fool people into looking there. He’s taking his knowledge of how the season works and is using it to his advantage. Mind you, given that all the idols this season have looked the same, it also means that someone should be ABLE to recognize a fake, but still, good detail.

Speaking of advantages, it’s time to FINALLY find out what all that buildup to the legacy advantage was. It’s… very underwhelming, basically just a one-time use hidden immunity idol. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s GREAT to have, and had Ken won immunity, it might have really come into play, as Ken could then give away immunity with no real risk to himself. But he didn’t, so it’s just kind of there. Can this twist work if tried again? Yeah, possibly. I think the main thing that holds it back is the guarantee that it will be there on Day 36. Look, one extra immunity, while a nice wrinkle, does not add much on its own. But how might it change how the game is played, how HARD people play, if they knew that had a big advantage coming late in the game. Or, might they use it as leverage, and pass it on to someone as a reward for loyalty? Those are intriguing possibilities. Now, I know why “Survivor” wouldn’t do that. You have a twist, you want it to come into play. But take this gamble, and the results would be worth it, I say.

Remember how I said someone would have to be an IDIOT to fall for David’s fake idol. Why hello, Jay! Yes, for all that the season has tried its damnedest to make us believe that Jay is not a COMPLETE moron, and while he certainly stacks up better than Taylor in the realm of intelligence, this guy is completely taken in by the ruse. And, for added hilarity, David is on-hand to silently giggle at the whole thing. Oh, and David’s fake idol is revealed to be even more fake, when we see that it is primarily painted pink. Simple facts: Idols do not come in pink. And no, the Bayon idol from “Survivor Cambodia” doesn’t count. Only the string on that one was pink.

We get to our first challenge, which is a pretty standard obstacle course. Nothing we haven’t really seen before, though I do like the fact that, as the puzzle is a hanging bat, it basically has to be assembled upside-down, so that’s pretty cool. And an obstacle course is pretty standard challenge fare for this point in the game, so I’ll give it a slight pass, but you’d better come up with better challenges later, show!

In case the “Jay is a goober.” edit hadn’t become clear with the fake idol debacle, it’s made clear at this challenge. With one element of the challenge being a combination lock, players are given a flap to throw over their lock to prevent cheating. But Jay, in his haste to move on, forgets, and naturally everyone goes over and copies his answer, blowing his lead. Jay still manages to do well on his puzzle, but in the end, David comes back to beat him.

Jay doesn’t get to leave empty handed, though. This was a reward challenge as well, for a steak dinner. Remember how I said the legacy advantage would never be used the way I suggested, because they want to be sure it stays in the game? Well, the same is true with the reward steal. I’m sure the producers wanted to throw in ONE MORE REWARD just to get the drama from it. And sure enough, Jay bites, stealing David’s steak dinner. In fairness to Jay, he actually plays things really well here. For one thing, despite my earlier comments, it’s likely that there won’t be any more rewards, so it’s now or never, and as Jay is still a target, he needs to win immunity (remember, he thinks he’s safe thanks to his fake idol) next, and the food could really help with that. For another, with so few people left, there’s fewer people to piss off by stealing a reward. And Jay even minimizes the damage there by taking David on reward with him, as well as Adam, both of which I’d say are the smart choices. Court the power players, make them feel comfortable, and you’ve got a better shot at making it far.

Sure enough, Jay gives us a pretty smart pitch all things considered: Keep him around as a shield. When the point is brought up about how they get to the end if he wins immunity, Jay insists he’ll take Adam and David no question. Which I’m sure he would. Because he would still win. That, right there, is the point in the argument that things get lost in: are you playing to get to the end, or are you playing to win? If you’re just trying to get to the end, Jay’s play is great. But Adam and David are not idiots. Both want to win, and both can’t do it with Jay in the game.

It will all come to nothing, though. Goober edit aside, Jay’s exit has been built up too much, and with Bret complaining about “crazy people” in this game, his exit is pretty much assured. Especially as David is completely on board, and Hannah willing to consider if Adam flips.

I don’t mean to diss this first Tribal Council. It’s actually a lot of fun, between the caged strategy and Bret’s snark (seriously, this guy is an actual sound-byte generator). But we all know the real story is Jay and the fake idol. The goober edit must be complete. Sure enough, Jay gets nervous, plays it, and Probst, after declaring it a “work of art” throws it in the fire. Ok, I take back my comments about the pointless move. It was all worth it for the look on Jay’s face.

Ultimately, goober edit wins out, and Jay goes home. As I say, the smart move for everyone left, and I’m overall not sorry to see Jay go. He made a fun rival to the major alliance, and his weird relationship with Adam was a good watch at times, but he’d served his purpose by this point. Plus, the goober edit demanded it. Guy leaves with a lot of class, though.

Ah, but there is one more point of note at this Tribal Council: Ken plays his legacy advantage, which he had kept hidden from everyone else. Now, why might he keep it hidden, despite no one really being able to do anything about it? Strategy. Apart from it always being good to keep information close at hand, bear in mind that Tribal Council is, in many ways, theater. Especially this close to the end, with jury at hand, you want to be seen as having victories. Even if these are just challenge victories, that you did little to earn, showing strength at the end can make all the difference. For example, I’d say that that was a major factor in Michele’s victory over Aubry on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. Were Aubry’s victories bigger? Yes. Michele’s victories came right at the end, though, and so were very fresh in the minds of the jury. Thus, a factor (though not the only factor) in victory.

With no real post-Tribal Council fallout to deal with, we cut straight to our next immunity challenge, which is, regrettably, ANOTHER obstacle course. This one mainly hails from “Survivor Vanuatu”, with the “push the buoy” part, and it all ends in a puzzle. This is a far less exciting obstacle course than the first one, and long story short, everything about it is lame. Oh, and I have particular ire for the puzzle solution, which is “Not a Participation Trophy”. Funny and difficult, I’ll grant you, but it’s once again going back to those god-awful stereotypes we were stuck with at the outset of this season. I’ll be talking more about this at the end of this blog, but this season is at its best when it distances itself from the “Millennials vs. Gen-X.” theme as much as possible. Except for Zeke and Bret’s heart to heart.

Ken ends up winning, which makes the challenge even MORE pointless, since he wasn’t in danger anyway. David seems the obvious choice to go, but Adam wants to be absolutely sure, and so goes out searching for an idol. Adam states that “finding the idol is the most important thing” at this phase of the game, which I have to patently disagree with. Adam, at this phase of the game, the most important thing is STRATEGIZING TO MAKE SURE YOUR NAME ISN’T BROUGHT UP! But what are the chances of that happening? It’s not like Adam’s own allies have talked about voting him out before.

At the very least, Adam does find an idol, and gets more than a little emotional about his mother again. Contrary to my snark last time, I’ll give him this one. It’s an emotional time in the game, finding an idol can be an emotional experience, and Adam certainly has more reason to cry than some other people. Plus, for whatever reason, this one felt more organic than some other emotional moments from him.

Shock of all shocks, Adam’s being away from camp puts the target on his back. For all that Bret does have friends on the jury, and he’s initially considered the only alternate to a David vote, David actually tries to swing the vote against Adam, partly because Adam’s the only one not there at the time, but also as a strategic threat, which does, admittedly, have some logic to it. David even tries to swing it as a shutout by filling Bret in on the plan. David assumes that Bret would be happy to just not be targeted, but Bret is ALSO not someone who’s just playing to get to the end, which I commend. He makes a point of warning Adam about the votes, and Adam reassures him about the idol. Unfortunately for Adam, he falls victim to one of the oldest “Survivor” pratfalls: being cocky. When he brings the subject up to Hannah, he mentions his idol and his intent to play it. Now, I can understand Adam’s confidence. He and Hannah have been pretty close allies throughout the majority of the game, so I can see why he’d confide in her. But with all the information we have, we see that this is not the case. David, in arguing for an Adam boot, brought up his, Hannah’s, and Ken’s final three pact, which shows that no, Hannah is not to be trusted. She plays around with the idea of telling or not telling, and she basks in her power as we head off to Tribal Council.

As to what she should do? As with the Sunday vote, the correct answer is the choice that eliminates the biggest threat, which at this point is David. This final three pact is all fine and good, but as much as Hannah would deny it, she’s playing to get to the end if she goes through with it.

We get a bit more vitriol at this Tribal Council, particularly when Adam calls out David’s threat level. We get on the subject of how much David’s grown, and David gives a moving speech about being afraid of birds, throwing in some self-deprecating humor in the mix. Pretty much a textbook “Winner” speech for this show. And Adam calls it out, as he should. But mean Bret also shows up, as we’ll see shortly.

Sad to say, this is the most predictable part of the episode. What with the showing of the Hannah, David, and Ken discussion of a final three pact, there’s no way that’s broken or shown if it wasn’t significant. Bret goes, and really lays into everyone for not voting out David. I completely understand, but dude, Adam voted WITH you. Lay off of him, at the very least.

I’ve made clear that it wasn’t the smart move, but I must admit, I’m sorry to Bret go. He’s grown on me, mostly in the last couple of episodes, but sometimes that’s all you need. Between the heart he showed in bonding with Zeke and his genuinely funny turns of phrase (seriously, I laughed at this episode more than I have any other in a while), the guy was a character. He will be missed, and I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing him again.

So, what’s Hannah’s justification for not eliminating David THIS time? Well, it’s textbook egocentrism. Despite the fact that everyone else can tell that Hannah’s pretty much been guaranteed a finals spot for a while, she believes that this was not the right time to eliminate David. She’d have lost Ken’s trust, and Bret didn’t want to take her to the end. I can’t really blame her too much for not realizing her position in the game. It’s easy to see ourselves as the center of everything, especially in a game like “Survivor”, that’s all about personality. But even factoring that into account, Hannah should still have known better. Adam acknowledged previously that Bret is a threat, so it’s likely he’d want Bret out, and she’s pretty much neglected Adam in this equation. Most likely, either Ken or Bret goes next if you get David, and then, if you’re as big a threat as you say you are, you can waltz to an easy victory!

Moving on to our final immunity challenge, we get a repeat of “Survivor One World”. Again, GREAT CHOICE GUYS!

Please note the sarcasm.

Anyway, this challenge involves maneuvering a bunch of pots through a wire maze that can knock over a stack at the top. First person to stack all 13 pots wins. Or, should no one get them all in 30 minutes, the highest stack wins. Definitely a tricky challenge, and SO CLOSE to being an endurance challenge, but it still just kind of falls short for me. Fortunately, we do get a lot of back and forth between our players, and wind is a major factor. Adam actually takes my strategy of sitting back when you get a decently high stack and relying on other players goofing it up to get you a victory. And it nearly works, as Ken’s stack of 10 falls quickly, but Adam’s is undone by the wind soon after. Surprisingly, it’s HANNAH who’s the real competition, initially tying Ken at 10 pots. Thus, we get a five-minute time trial to determine the winner, resulting in a thrilling… anticlimax. Yep, Ken wins again, giving Adam and Hannah even less room to maneuver.

Adam gears up for a fire-making challenge, which certainly seems inevitable. Hannah, however, wants to try and talk Ken into doing the smart thing, for once, and voting out David. I’ll grant you that it’s better to have Hannah talk to him than Adam, as Adam’s skills at persuasion are sub-par against anyone not named Jay, but this is KEN we’re talking about. “Trust-Test” Ken. You really think a strategic argument will work on him? Granted, Hannah’s approach of “You don’t want to be seen as a moron” is about as good an argument for Ken as you can get, but as all we really hear from him is more pontificating about integrity, I’m not convinced in the slightest.

One nice bit, though: Adam and David cut the bullshit and just admit they’re targeting each other. Adam gets a little bit mean about it, but by and large, it’s just a friendly competition, and nice to see.

Tribal itself falls in the middle of the pack. I don’t remember much about it, mostly due to the outcome, but it did have it’s moments. In particular, I loved Adam’s pointing out of David’s threat level with his hands, only for David to move Adam’s hand a few inches higher. Like I said, this finale may not have been the most drama filled, but it definitely earns a lot of points in the humor category.

The trouble is that, with all the Ken loyalty talk we’ve been getting, there’s no way it’s not at best a fire making challenge. Adam going home due to Hannah not wanting to force a tie is also a possibility, but not what actually happens.

No, Ken actually decides to grow a brain, and David leaves with a lot of class. Before I talk about David, though, let me once again compliment this bit of editing. I’ve been happy with the editing this episode so far, but this was the moment that got me most of all. The Jay boot was kind of a surprise, but my jaw literally dropped at this outcome. Never in a million years did I think Ken would actually grow a spine and vote out David, but good for him. We’re shocked, but in a good way, and it’s this type of unpredictability that keeps the show good after all these years.

But as to David: Well, he’s kind of a hybrid of Jay and Bret’s exits this episode, in regards to how I feel. On the one hand, David hands down played the best strategic and social game of the season (overall), and the dude’s exit is a loss. That said, his victory would have been disappointing. While no one got a real “winner’s edit” this season (another example of how complaining can influence things, and another credit to the editors), David came the closest, with how blatantly his “fish-out-of-water” story came through. It was pretty clear that we were supposed to like this person, kind of like how Cirie was portrayed on “Survivor Exile Island”, or Yau-Man on “Survivor Fiji”. You could kind of see where they were going with these characters, so there was little surprise. I’m bummed his game wasn’t richly rewarded as it should have been, but I’m happy the field’s wide open for victory now.

Don’t believe me? In my pre-episode rankings, I gave Adam the edge in this final three scenario, but in counting up the votes, I’m not so sure. Since absolutely NOTHING of interest happens on Day 39, just the players overestimating how they’ve played this game, I’ll instead devote this portion of the blog to my at-the-time thoughts on probable juror votes to explain why the pool is wide open, at least between Ken and Adam.

Michelle-Tough to tell, since she was out so early and got very little screentime, but I’m putting her in the Hannah camp, since she seems to respect strategic play, and had more and better interactions with Hannah than with Adam.

Taylor-More in the “Not Adam” camp than anything, I’d peg him for Ken, since Taylor is the type to prefer a “bro-down” challenge threat like Ken.

Chris-Values strategic play. Probably doesn’t like the neuroticism of Hannah and the betrayal of Ken. I’d go Adam on this one.

Jessica-Ken, for sure. If she liked him enough to give him the legacy advantage, she’ll give him her vote.

Zeke-Another strategy appreciator, and so will probably go with Hannah, due to his difficulties with Adam earlier in the season.

Will-A tough call, since he really doesn’t have much favor for anyone left. I’d call Will for Ken, due to liking physical threats, but Will’s is probably the most up in the air vote for me at this point.

Sunday-Again, tough to tell, since we didn’t see much of her, so I’ll call her for Ken, due to having more contact with him than Hannah or Adam.

Jay-Adam. That mom sob story got to him.

Bret-As Adam was really the only one of the three who strategized with him, and Bret clearly values strategy, I’d say he’s definitely an Adam supporter.

David-Ken, since the dude was loyal most of the game, and I don’t see him holding too much of a grudge.

That, right there, is a Ken victory. Of course, the wild card here is Adam’s mom’s story. As Jeremy Collins demonstrated on “Survivor Cambodia”, a nice play like that at the end can swap some votes, and with people like Will in play, this is a much more live Final Tribal Council than you’d think.

Good thing, too, because this Tribal Council is tame in terms of questions. It’s not a bore like some other ones were, due to the banter between finalists rather than jurors, so I’ll once again keep things brief and go over each juror’s comments and how I’d predict their vote afterward.

Also, sorry that these aren’t in order of asking, but I can only remember so much. I’ll bring up how order matters on the questions where it matters, and I’ll be talking about it as a whole after all jurors are accounted for, as I think it has a real impact on this Tribal Council.

Michelle-Michelle comes later than I’m putting her, after Hannah has taken some heat, and so lobs her a softball about how often she was on the right side of the vote, before laying into Adam about his blunders. Pretty clear at this point she’s in the Hannah camp, as I guessed.

Taylor-Taylor claims his vote is live, and asks why everyone deserves to win. We get generic answers, but here we see another reason why Ken may have the edge. While Adam has more blatant strategic victories, and less neuroticism working against him, he and Hannah have similar resumes. And I’ll be damned if Hannah is going to let anyone forget that. What is most exciting about this Final Tribal Council is Adam and Hannah constantly rebutting each other’s arguments. It’s fun to watch, but doing so lessens their chances of victory. By claiming each other’s accomplishments, they fail to stand out, and seem like they’re desperately trying to hold onto resume points. Meanwhile, Ken gets to build himself up uncontested. Point to Ken, both overall and for Taylor.

Chris-Chris is our requisite “Here’s who you should vote for.” speech, though not nearly as entertaining as past entries. Unsurprisingly, he supports the strategic one, that being Adam.

Jessica-Surprisingly a lot of vitriol on Ken for betraying David but he seems to give a good response. Between that and her question to Adam about his contributions being answered poorly, I’m keeping her in the Ken category.

Zeke-Takes his time to praise Ken, but also questions Adam about his strategic accomplishments. Zeke’s the first vote I change, as no Hannah talk but good Adam talk probably puts him down as a vote for Adam.

Will-Will goes more strategic, and wants to know the logic behind Adam’s moves. Still keep him as a Ken vote, though, as Will seems more anti-Adam than pro-anyone.

Sunday-She wants to know how people adapted, and where one fits on the scale of “Millennials vs. Gen-X” (God, will this twist not DIE?). Not much information gained on her logic, so I’ll keep her a Ken vote.

Jay-Lobs Adam a softball about his mom. No surprise.

Bret-Naturally wants to know from Adam why it took so long to get rid of David. Adam answers well, and though it leads to more arguing from Hannah, I’ll keep Bret down for Adam.

David-Wants to know how people have grown from their time out here. And this is where Adam’s story comes into play. No one can top the tragedy of a cancerous mom. David probably flips to Adam.

Here’s where order is a factor. As I said, the Adam and Hannah debates could have doomed both of them. But again, Tribal Council in general, and Final Tribal Council in particular, is theater. How you shift the tone is important. And most of the front half of this one was the debates. But the back half was all about Adam’s Mom, and that being the last stuff heard before voting was probably pretty impactful. It’s not just delivery, but timing of delivery, that counts.

It should come as no surprise that Adam wins, so before I talk about that, let’s talk about Adam’s METHOD of winning. As mentioned, it comes off similar to how Jeremy won “Survivor Cambodia”. I called it a somewhat low-down way to victory there, and one would expect me to do the same here. And yes, I DO have an issue or two with this path to victory for Adam, and I’ll be talking about it. But with that said, I have MUCH less of an issue of Adam doing this than Jeremy. There’s a couple of reasons why:

First off, and this is purely a personal thing with me, but a dying parent is much more impactful to me than a new child. Perhaps it’s just because I have lost loved ones, but have no children of my own yet, but it seems to me like the former more naturally tugs at the heartstrings, and if you’re going to do a sympathy vote, it should be for something on this scale. But again, that’s my subjective opinion.

Secondly, this felt much more organic. Adam was lobbed questions that would naturally segway into talking about his mother. With Jeremy, perhaps my memory’s going, but he just kind of blurted it out unrelated to anything. Thus, it seems like Jeremy was trying to get out anything that will help him win, whereas Adam was just answering a question.

Third, and this is the important point: Adam NEEDED to do this. He was very much in danger of losing if he didn’t pull out all the stops against Ken and Hannah. Jeremy, by contrast, was probably winning no matter what, particularly given how Spencer Bledsoe (“Survivor Cagayan”) was perceived those last few days. Thus, Adam’s move was one of desperation, whereas Jeremy’s was one of rubbing salt in the wound.

Also, Adam was the guy I wanted to win from the beginning. Yeah, I’m biased, but I don’t care. My guy won. Neener, neener, neener.

All that said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take issue with this. Adam definitely was the more satisfying win of the other two. The inventor of “trust clusters”? The guy with “truth test”? Yeah, Adam had plenty of blunders along the way, but he was clearly the superior strategist of those left. But winning in a LOCKOUT? That’s a stretch. It’s not as though Hannah and Ken had NO accomplishments. Like Spencer and Tasha on “Survivor Cambodia”, they got gypped. The “right” person may have won overall, but don’t shaft good players. And, as I say, there’s a level of scumminess in exploiting a tragedy for personal gain. Ultimately, though, my fear is that future “Survivor” winners will be decided exclusively by degree of sob story. I’m ok with it being a FACTOR in victory, but if it just comes down to “Who has a sob story, and who doesn’t?”, that takes away from the strategy of it, and lessens the game, in my opinion.

But still, good for Adam. We even get a nice reunion show to go with it. I still wish we got more time on it, but Probst did a good job of covering the important topics, didn’t feel the need to talk with those we didn’t want to hear from, and actually got everyone who made the merge, and even a few post merge! Some of the questions were even interesting! Oh, and Michelle’s dragon dress. Awesome. Granted, compared to the reunion shows of old, it’s sub-par, but for everything post “Survivor Caramoan”, this is PHENOMENAL! More please!

Oh, and we hear about our new season. It’s called “Survivor Game Changers”, which already earns points with me for being a far superior title than “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”. That said, if the rumored cast is true, I must take issue with the title of “game changers”. Even by Probst’s definition of “people who influenced the game”, a lot of these rumored people REALLY don’t fit the bill. I’ll save my full thoughts on this season idea for when the who cast comes out officially (since the internet can be wrong at times), but suffice to say that while I like the idea, I think it’s too soon for another all-returnees season, and again, I take umbrage with some of the casting criteria. Awesome looking logo, though.

Speaking of twists, it’s time for the regular…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Since the title of this season wouldn’t let us FORGET The way tribes were divided, this list will rank the best and worst ways of tribe division, at least for seasons that divided tribes by some factor or another. Let’s jump right in, since it’s 1:00 AM, and I have work tomorrow!

TOP 5

5. Gender: Bit of an obvious choice, but the conflicts that come from “men vs. women” seasons tend to be fun. Plus, the women usually win when they’re not up against Chris Daugherty (“Survivor Vanuatu”), and it’s good to see.

4. Heroes vs. Villains: Even though this was more of a new coat of paint for an “All-Stars” season, I’ll give credit that it did build up an epic narrative, and gave the season more color than it perhaps deserved. Fun, but relatively uneventful.

3. Blood vs. Water: Adding a personal dynamic to an already personal game can go REALLY well or REALLY badly. Thankfully, this twist has payed off both times (relatively speaking), and the conflicts we get from it make the game all the more interesting.

2. Fans vs. Favorites: This one wins out for giving us the best of both worlds: The excitement of new players along with the guaranteed entertainment of old ones. The only real negative is that the “Fans” side is at a distinct disadvantage, but even then, it’s still fun to see for the reasons described above.

1. Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty: When your tribe divisions are simple and natural, and lead to interesting, not forced, discussion, coupled with good characters, you’ve got divisions that are difficult to do badly.

Honorable Mention: Water vs. Shelter: I’m cheating a bit here, since this was more a division of camps than a tribe theme. Nevertheless the choice between ready-made shelter or easy access to water on “Survivor Thailand” was a dynamic that made the start of the game interesting, even if it didn’t significantly impact the tribes in any way.

BOTTOM 5

5. Age: Like with gender, a fairly easy idea, and one that had to be tried, but all too predictable outcomes make this division not much fun to watch.

4. Millennials vs. Gen-X: I’ve said before: it’s forced an unnecessary. It led to some nice moments in the end, which is why it ends up so low, but again, this season was at its best when the twist was not emphasized.

3. White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar: Similar criticisms to the “Millennials vs. Gen-X” twist, only this one was MORE forced. Seriously, is “No Collar” even a thing? That, plus more annoying and forced talk about the twist make this one objectively worse.

2. Race: Needed to be on here for ethical reasons. I admire “Survivor” for trying to add more diversity into the cast, and we got a decent season out of it, but hearing about the “racist season” is just cringe-worthy in general.

1. Haves vs. Have-Nots: Just a poorly conceived twist from the beginning that once again led to predictable results, and ultimately hindered the season. Need I say more?

Honorable Mention: Age and Gender: This one doesn’t really count, as it lasted all of one episode, but as it has the problems of both dividing tribes by age and gender, it bears mentioning.

And now, to my season-requisite “How close was I in my cast assessment?” segment!

Michelle-Wrong. She was more strategic than I though, and less annoying that I thought. She did at least make the merge, but she was still close to my predicted exit point, at least.

Taylor-I’ll give myself this one. Apart from his romance, he was bland and was taken out post-merge as a challenge threat, just as I suspected.

Michaela-Wrong. While she was entertaining, and had some smarts, I way overestimated her social graces and her time in the game.

Zeke-Happy to be wrong on this one. Dude was game savvy and entertaining. Glad he stuck around for a while.

Hannah-I’d say I was right on personality, but she lasted longer than I gave her credit for. Arguably our first mixed bag of this group, and certainly won’t be the last.

Figgy-I didn’t get much of a read on her either way, and she didn’t last very long, so I was right this time.

Mari-Wrong. I think she had the POTENTIAL to be what I thought, but she was cut to early for me to be right about anything about her.

Jay-While I did nail his personality, he lasted much longer than I thought, so overall, wrong.

Adam-Wrong, and happy to be so. Again, some of his personality was like I thought, but I didn’t think he’d win.

Will-As generic as I thought, but much longer-lived.

Sunday-Again, right on personality, wrong on time in the game. She hung in there.

CeCe-Exactly right, for once this season.

Rachel-Let’s hear it for my second correct called first boot in my history of blogging!

Lucy-Again, about right in being a boring personality out fairly early.

Ken-Wrong, due to less game-savvy and being longer lived.

Jessica-Not as on the ball of the game as I thought, but right overall.

Bret-Wrong. He was smart, he was funny, he was more long-lived than I would have guessed. Good for him.

David-At first it seemed like I was wrong about him, but he grew into the strategist I predicted. All I got wrong was his victory.

Paul-WAY wrong. Much less easygoing and more short-lived than I’d have guessed.

Chris-We end on a note of me being right. I can live with that.

And there you have it. A satisfying end to a satisfying season. A lot of people seem to be throwing their hat into the ring about how great this season is, so I’ll give my two cents as well. I think it’s… pretty good. Certainly a season that got better as it went along, which is always nice to have, and the sheer number of crazy events also help make this a fun watch. But is it upper echelon “Survivor”, as someone like Dalton Ross claims? Definitely not! I’d probably say it’s middle-of-the-pack “Survivor”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely a “good” season, and it’s a lot of fun, but one of the best? We got good characters, sure, but in the long run, I don’t think most of them stand out. Also, maybe it was just me, but we had a lot of duds on this season. Oh, most everybody contributed at least SOMETHING over an episode or two, but for the most part, there was hardly anyone who was consistently fun/good at strategy all season. People fading in and out of focus makes it harder to predict the winner, but it also makes it harder to latch on to someone to root for. For me, as well, the theme of this season REALLY drags it down, due to being forced and lame to hear. We got a tender moment or two out of it, but for the most part, the season was at its best when we focussed less on the theme.

Actually, I’d compare this season favorably to “Survivor Cook Islands”. Both have similar problems, with a cast with a lot of filler and a cringe-worthy theme. I think “Survivor Cook Islands” ultimately hit higher highs than this season did, but if I’m being honest, than “Survivor Cook Islands” ultimately had more dud characters than this season, as most people this season at least brought one small SOMETHING at SOME POINT! If you were to hold me down and force me to choose, I’d probably give this season the edge over “Survivor Cook Islands”, due to more consistency in quality and better unpredictability. No one reaches the high of a Yul or an Ozzy, but no one really reaches the low of a Stephanie or a Jenny.

Well, after a summary like that, there’s only one way to end this blog. TRIVIA! Adam is the first player ever to be featured first in the theme song and win the season. And it’s tidbits like that that give me readers.

See you all in March!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor MGX” Episode 12: Jonathan Penner Lives

Although he just BARELY didn’t make my “Favorite Contestants” list I did at the end of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, it cannot be denied that Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Cook Islands”) is one of my all-time favorite players, and it’s entirely for the snark factor. Probst LOVES to pour salt in wounds during his challenge commentary, but few have the guts to give it right back to him. Penner is one of the few that does it, and that’s why I love him so. And while no one can really come close, tonight we had what appeared to be something of a second coming of snark. PRAISE BE TO PENNER! THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED!

As to our first Penner imposter, why, he’s getting congratulated at the outcome of the past episode’s Tribal Council. Yes, Will is getting his back patted by the entire cast, which really is what he wanted all along, and so everyone gives it to him. True, Adam kind of stole his thunder by playing his idol, but there’s also the point to be made of how pointless Adam’s idol play was, and as we’ll discuss later, Will does do a good job of bringing that up. For now, though, people like to make out that his move was bigger than it was, in order to appease Will. Will, for his part, says that this gives him more power in the decision making, and that he can flip-flop between alliances. I’ll admit that he does have more power than he had before (though that’s not saying much), but I have to disagree with Will’s assessment of his position. It’s definitely a desirable one, and Will is clearly trying to get there. The trouble is that the “swing vote” position, by and large, isn’t one you work your way into. True, it’s possible to do, and certainly you can maneuver yourself to a place where it’s easier to become the swing vote, but by and large, becoming the swing vote is something you fall into, not something you obtain.

Case in point, sunrise reveals that our true swing vote is Adam, who is brought in by Bret and Sunday to discuss getting rid of Jay, David, and Will, not necessarily in that order. Adam pretty much agrees, which is good for him. The guy’s done a lot to redeem himself, and I’d even go so far as to say he has a shot at winning again, but it’s a tough battle. Jay and David are his biggest threats to beat him in the end, David because he’s got a similar story arc to Adam, while having pissed fewer people off, and Jay because of all his friends on the jury. At this point, Michelle and Taylor love him, and I don’t see Chris or Jessica having anything bad to say about him. Really, Zeke is the only one who probably isn’t at least a potential Jay vote, and that’s only one vote. Pretty big threat. So, why would Will be good to put in the mix? Well, for all that Will has to be given the “swing vote” status, the fact that he’s trying to get there on his own makes him an alternative to Adam, which makes him a threat to Adam’s place in the game. Why Bret and Sunday are against him, I’m not sure, but since they’re pretty well on the bottom, I guess they’ll say anything to find an alliance.

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, but the same does not apply to the challenge department of “Survivor” because despite having challenges that have ranged from “meh” to “please make it stop” pretty much all season, we’ve got a KICK-ASS immunity challenge this time around. Each player has a set of ten disks. They must stack these disks on a pole, as many at a time as they like, and work their way through a series of obstacles, which range from difficult to “think of the children!”. Of particular note is one where you switch to a horizontal hold and have to maneuver your pole through a maze, while dodging trip wires with your feet. Once all the disks make it to the end, you roll them into a slot, with the first person to snag all ten in the slot winning immunity. While this bears a resemblance to challenges from “Survivor Blood vs. Water” and “Survivor Worlds Apart”, it manages to feel new, and it’s certainly difficult. Again, turning the pole horizontal at one point really shakes things up, and makes for a fun, but difficult, challenge. Were I to have one criticism, I would say that the grand finale of it all (the rolling of the disks) is maybe not as exciting as the early parts, but even that ends up looking pretty cool with disks flying every which way.

Sadly, for all the coolness of the challenge, we do lose some of the uncertainty we’ve had in a lot of challenges this season, as Jay, Bret, and David have the lead pretty much the entire time, with Jay ultimately and predictably winning. But this is made up for by the aforementioned rebirth of Jonathan Penner. You see, poor Will cannot even get over the first obstacle (a balance beam) for the life of him. This in and of itself is frustrating, but of course Probst puts in his two cents. It’s pretty generic confessionals for Probst, but Will eventually has enough, and responds with a deadpan “Thank you, Jeff.” It’s time like these that I regret that I do a blog and not a vlog, because it’s difficult to convey what exactly makes this so funny. On the surface, it’s a simple line, but the deadpan yet frustrated way Will responds just makes it hilarious. Hell, he even SOUNDS a little bit like the sainted Penner when saying it. Will has a pretty distinct voice, so just imagine him saying that line while sounding ticked off. That, right there, is hilarious.

As mentioned, Jay wins, and so we come down to the debate of “David vs. Will” The Bret-Sunday-Adam alliance is more than a little peeved that Jay won, as he was their target, but it seems like David is up next, as even Will suggests it. Adam, however, is worried about Will’s power, and Bret is happy to go along with it, mainly because it would give him and Sunday actual power rather than just being spared as non-threats. Adam brings up the idea to Hannah, who’s somewhat more reluctant, as she feels that she owes Will for flipping last episode, but also admits that she owes David for going to rocks the episode before, and if you’re thinking that this is the weakest misdirection since “Survivor Redemption Island” then congratulations, you’ve seen this show before! Yeah, for all that this season has been fairly unpredictable since the swap, this episode in general, and this first half in particular, really dropped the ball on this one. At no point do I think David is going home. Will has been built up as too much of a threat, and Adam’s rise to power too heavily foreshadowed for it not to be him going.

Sad to say, but Tribal Council really does nothing to help add to the mystery. It’s pretty much all generic strategic sound bytes, so let’s skip to the obvious outcome. Will goes home, with about the only surprise being that Adam was able to swing David and Ken, though that surprise is mitigated when you realize that David had no other logical play, and did you really think Ken would vote against David. No, Will is gone, and it’s both the right move strategically for everyone except Jay, and as a view, it’s no real loss either. Don’t get me wrong, Will stepped it up last episode, and he seems like a likable enough kid, but compared to these other players (and Sunday), he didn’t bring a whole lot to the table. No, scratch that, he brought just enough, and left before we were full of him. Time enough to enjoy him, but not enough to make ourselves sick. Yes, I AM still in a Thanksgiving frame of mind, thank you very much. Will may not have been the most memorable player in “Survivor” history, but I don’t think he was that much of a waste of space in the end, and I’m glad he was there.

But no, this is not a surprisingly short and boring episode, but rather, once again, two episodes crammed into one, though since each half covers a day of game time, we keep it to an hour by basically following the structure of Fallout from previous Tribal Council-Immunity Challenge-Strategizing-Tribal Council. Our fallout, naturally, is Jay being pissed off, though the guy takes it in his stride, referring to himself as the “black plague” of “Survivor”, as his allies tend to die. Well, can’t fault his logic there. Adam goes off to talk with him, and you’d expect this to make a bad situation worse, but it seems Adam has FINALLY learned how to console people he just betrayed. After an apology for lying, Adam gets back on the anti-David track, which unsurprisingly works better than repeatedly emphasizing the lying part. Jay, for his part, talks about how Adam and he have a certain mutual respect for each other, even though they continue to work against one another. It’s an odd relationship, but it’s also another aspect that makes me believe Adam is not quite as out of the game as his early post-merge performance would indicate.

As for our second immunity challenge, it’s got a tough act to follow. I mean, I pretty much heaped nothing but praise on it since the beginning, so what could possibly top that?

YOU’RE GOING TO PLAY “PLINKO” FOR UP TO $50,000!

Actually, that’s not too far off. Evidently deciding that the physical portions of challenges really were pointless if you put a puzzle at the end, the challenge department just skipped to the puzzle outright. But that wasn’t challenging enough, so they added a really cool hurdle. Before starting the puzzle, everyone has to shoot a ball up a ramp and into effectively a “Plinko” board. Players can only work on the puzzle as long as their ball is in the “Plinko” machine. If they catch it before it hits a guard rail, they can throw it back up the ramp and keep going. If they miss, they have to stop and wait while it rolls down a long ramp, and they endure the agony of Probst rubbing in their near misses. I should dislike this challenge for how simple the puzzle is, but I can’t help but enjoy that sadistic twist of the “Plinko” machine. Yeah. “Plinko”=sadistic. Who would have thought? But as Probst points out, this divides your attention, making the puzzle harder, and adds something of a ticking clock to the whole thing. Me likey.

We get another relatively back and forth challenge, and even another Penner moment. David and Ken are the two that end up pulling away. Probst shows his favoritism and comments on how far ahead David is, only to have Ken do his best little kid impression and go “No he’s not!” And true, Ken does have all his pieces together, but in the wrong order. Everyone keeps going, and here’s where we get a fascinating bit of strategy: Adam helps Ken. Yes, taking a piece from the book of Laura Morett (“Survivor Samoa”), Adam realizes that he REALLY doesn’t want David winning, and seeing as he’s not really in it, takes his time and watches Ken’s board for him, warning him when his ball is close to falling. While it does have the same drawback as Michaela’s helping during a challenge a ways back, in that it blatantly reveals your game, I think it’s no secret that David’s a target, and so preventing him from winning immunity is going to be pretty universally considered a good thing. Why Jay gives him a “What the hell?” look as Jay was pretty much out of it at this point, I’m not sure, especially as Jay was one of the biggest anti-David advocates. David, I could understand.

Really, though, the biggest mystery is why David and co. still TRUST Adam after that display. When we delve into strategy talk, and imminent split-vote talk, it’s all about “keeping the solid four” from Hannah, David, and Ken, with Adam being that fourth. WHY? Ok, I get it a bit from Hannah, but it’s clear that it’s not in David and Ken’s best interest to keep Adam around if he’s that blatantly working against them.

This also shows why Adam NEEDS to keep Bret and Sunday around. For all my snark, having a solid foursome this late in the game is a VERY good way to get to the end, and it’s a pretty sweet deal. Unless you’re number four in that scenario. Adam is clearly number four, so he needs a backup scenario. That means he NEEDS Bret and Sunday around to be his backup. Despite his newfound “brohood” with Jay, really Adam needs to get rid of Jay tonight, so he and Hannah have the run of which pair to side with. Which is what he tries to do. Hannah, however, is too on board with the David and Ken thing, and so proposes throwing one vote on Jay (in the hopes that he plays his idol), and three on Sunday. Why Sunday? Well, she IS the most likely to be taken to the end, as she hasn’t had the chance to really do much game playing. This, therefore, limits the options of flippers like Adam, and frees up a spot for someone else. The logic makes sense for David and Ken, especially as David would be a target otherwise, but I really don’t get Hannah. She, like Adam, benefits from the freedom of choice offered by keeping both Bret and Sunday around. I get that she probably is closer with David than with Bret and Sunday (as the former seems most similar to her), and so having David be gone might not be good for her, but ultimately, Hannah’s tightest alliance needs to be with Adam if she wants any hope of success. I agree with cutting him out at the foursome, as he could beat her, and I don’t see David and Ken splitting up, but then you just get beat by David or Ken. Against Bret and Sunday, her odds are better.

At the very least, this plan is so convoluted that it does leave us with a lot of mystery about the outcome. Perhaps we ought to clarify strategy a bit more. No? All right, I guess we can get more of the bro-down. Adam tries to convince Jay to play his idol, to which Jay responds with about the same amount of snark as when Amanda Kimmel tried the same trick on Parvati Shallow on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”. This quickly devolves into another sobfest, as Adam, full of melodrama, decides to tell Jay something he’s told no one else in this game! Will it be a genuine revelation that turns the whole game on its head, or will it be his mom again?

Sure enough, it’s Adam’s mom and at the risk of sounding like a heartless bastard, it’s really not needed. Don’t get me wrong: the situation with Adam’s mom is tragic, and I don’t begrudge him his emotions. I DO begrudge the editors needing to hit us with this plot point again. We get it. It’s tragic. You don’t need to remind us again. The first time, during the pre-merge, it fit in organically, and it’s a plot point we hadn’t heard at that point. The second time, at the family reward challenge, it fit with the theme of family, and it had been a while since it was brought up, so we were ok with it. But now, just one episode later, it just feels played out. We do get to hear about JAY’S mom’s situation, and as this is the first we’ve heard of it, it’s more impactful. The two have a good manly cry as I find that one upside to the scene.

It seems that the coolness of the immunity challenge is inversely proportional to the coolness of Tribal Council, as once again, it’s generic strategy talk, though I will give this one an edge over the first one for one particular exchange. Probst asks Jay about threats in the game, and Jay makes a comment about people with friends being the real threats, rather than one guy with an idol. Clearly trying to deflect attention away from himself. Probst then brilliantly asks Bret to clarify what Jay means, to which Bret responds “What he means is he wishes he was wearing that necklace tonight.” Bam. Perfect comeback. All it needed was a mike drop.

Speaking of Jay, he does ultimately play his idol tonight, which I’d probably have done were I in his shoes, especially as we’re coming down to the point where it can’t be played anymore. However, once again, it’s a wasted idol, as Adam sided against his own best interests and voted Sunday out. Ok, I’ll give credit that I didn’t see this coming, as while a Sunday exit was foreshadowed, I didn’t feel like she got enough screen time to merit an exit. Plus, except for David and Ken, her exit would be a dumb move for everyone, and people have generally done the smart things this season. As to how I feel about her exit, it’s difficult to say. From an objective standpoint, I really can’t be too sorry. Out of all the people left, she really brought the least to the game (Ken, at least, caught the occasional octopus), and so it’s better to trim the fat, so to speak, going into the finale. But I’m not sure how much of that edit is to blame on Sunday being boring or on the editors. Maybe I’m just biased in favor of “older ladies” on “Survivor”, but as I’ve mentioned a couple times, I’ve heard bits from Sunday that indicate to me that she had a lot more going on than she really let on, or that we got to see. I’m sad for the lost potential, but for what we got, probably the best exit from a viewer perspective.

While this episode wasn’t BAD, per se, it doesn’t live up to the general quality of post-merge episodes. While the challenges were good, and the second half definitely superior to the first half, we got uninteresting and generally predictable exits, and just kind of generic gameplay. I can’t hate on this episode, but I can certainly hope that the finale will be a bloodbath.

Speaking of which, it’s time for the traditional ranking of who’s most likely to win, should they make Final Tribal Council.

JAY-One could argue that his resume is a bit on the weaker side, but Jay’s got JUST ENOUGH smarts that I think he could parlay his immunity wins into seeming like points on a resume. Add onto that all his friends on the jury, and potential dislike of flip-floppers, and having Jay in the end is jury suicide for most everybody.

DAVID-In terms of who has the strongest resume of those left, David is the clear winner. As was pointed out in this episode, his personal growth plus strategic excellence make him tough to go up against. I put him below Jay only because of the potential of a bitter jury who doesn’t appreciate neurotic people could ruin everything, but as has been brought up time and again, David is the person to watch.

ADAM-Perhaps my personal bias, but Adam’s stock just keeps rising and rising. Granted, his own allies still don’t trust him, but he seems to have gotten over the personal dislike so many had for him, and some good strategic showing late game, plus the potential of his mom’s cancer story could make him a threat to get votes.

BRET-I’m surprised he made it this high, but Bret is still a contender at this point. He really doesn’t have victories to his name, but he does have an underdog status, and as we saw on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, that can count for a lot. Bret’s just likable enough that if he makes it to the end and acquits himself well, he could just run away with this.

KEN-Had this list been done two episodes ago, Ken would have been above Adam. He’s handsome, likable, and hasn’t really gotten much egg on his face. True, his resume does follow David’s closely, but if David’s out of the game, then Ken can take all the credit he wants. The trouble is his whole “truth test” with Will from last episode. That was a pretty public humiliation for him, and if the jury has any respect for strategy, he’s pretty well doomed after that. HIs general likability COULD pull him through, but circumstances have to happen just so.

HANNAH-I really hate to be down on the one lady of “Survivor” left in the game, but I don’t see much of a road to victory for Hannah. If she does make Final Tribal Council, I see the jury pulling an Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”), on her, and bashing her for playing with her heart rather than her head. While she DOES have some strategic claims to her name, I don’t think they’ve been big enough to be noticed, and most of the people she wants to get near the end with can take those claims as their own. I don’t want to say Hannah’s COMPLETELY out of the running, but again, I don’t see much of a path to victory for her.

Perhaps this is like theater, where a bad dress rehearsal makes for a good show. See you at the finale!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor MGX” Episode 11: Character Assassination

It really is the main flaw of this season that it cannot manage to keep a character likable and interesting for more than a couple episodes. I suppose there is David as a counterexample, but other than that, people rise and fall (and sometimes rise again), but mostly fade into the background. Admittedly, this can be seen as something of a positive. After all, this means, in a sense, that most people are playing,and we’re just seeing their game in their relevant episodes. But from a story perspective, it really gives us no one to root for, no one to grasp onto as the focal point of the season. I’m not saying a season should focus exclusively on one person (see “Survivor Samoa” for an example of how that strategy can go horribly, horribly wrong), but pretty much focussing on no one is no strategy at all. It SEEMED like Zeke was going to be our focal point. Not the most visible of contestants early on, but visible enough that we could respect him, and really coming into his own as the season progressed. Someone who could build up to being the main character of the season. But no, Zeke just HAD to go full on asshole mode this episode.

Don’t believe me? It’s LITERALLY the first thing we hear out of him! While most everybody else gets a bit teared up over the unfortunate exit of Jessica to rocks (while Hannah’s sobs are a bit much, I can’t disagree with her sentiment), Zeke can’t help but talk about how AWESOME that Tribal Council was. I mean, you COULD bother to show some tact about the whole thing, man. Sure, you’re side won, you have a right to be happy about that, but given how Jessica reacted on her way out, I think at LEAST a brief period of mourning would have been in order.

Ken’s grief is alleviated slightly by the arrival of his legacy advantage, appearing in his bag overnight. Ken gives a generic confessional about how happy he is to have it, and how he hopes he can use it, but I’m more interested in another possibility. From what we saw, it looked like Ken was still in or near camp. Imagine if he’d gone through his bag with everyone else sitting around, and pulled out the advantage, casually wondering “What’s this?” out loud. His cover would be blown, and the one game advantage that’s remained hidden this entire time would be out in the open. Could have gone badly, is what I’m saying.

We’re off to our reward challenge, which, as advertised, is our loved one’s challenge. Everyone’s family comes in, everyone’s emotional, it’s basically what you’d expect at this point. I have to say, though, I’m SICK of people saying “I wasn’t going to cry.” I can handle maybe one person saying that per season, but my God, EVERYONE here says it. SOMETIMES it can be funny, like Adam playfully mocking Bret’s accent when calling him a “Losah”, but for the most part, it just comes across as cliche. Probst isn’t helping matters, trying to drag the already dramatic family challenge to greater heights by asking things like “What does it mean to have someone you can completely trust out here?” We’ve heard all these before, Probst, you’re adding nothing new. This is already a weak-enough family challenge. Best to just let it be.

There are, however, two visits that stood out enough to be worth commenting on. The first is Hannah. Now Hannah, just in case you haven’t noticed, has been a BIT of an emotional wreck over the course of the season. When confronted with something DESIGNED to draw out drama and tears (mostly tears), you’d expect Hannah to double-down on the sobs. Instead, it’s HANNAH who comforts her mom. It’s both a nice moment to see that we HAVEN’T seen a million times before, and I think it shows something about Hannah. If her mom’s this way, then the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

But, of course, the visit of the hour is Adam’s brother, who reassures him that his mother is still ok. It’s tearful and nice, and not played for disgusting laughs like Jonny Fairplay’s Dead Grandma Lie on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, but that doesn’t mean strategy doesn’t enter into it. After their reunion, Adam takes the time to remind everyone that he has a reward steal to his name, but makes plain his intention not to use it on this challenge. Now, don’t get me wrong, Adam not using it on this challenge is DEFINITELY the right call. It gains him very little, even in the short term, and with such an emotionally charged reward on the line, it would earn Adam a lot of bad blood. My issue is why he needs to bring it up at the challenge. Adam could easily have just let it lie, not used his reward steal at all, and the effect would have been the same. By bringing up that he’s NOT going to use it, Adam reminds everyone that he has the advantage, thereby potentially making them wary of him again. For contrast, if Adam DOESN’T bring it up here, he could bring it up later as a “Look, I could have used it, but didn’t.” comment. Same effect as bringing it up to the tribe, but it puts no target on his back. Plus, would this move really bring him any goodwill. Would anyone really buy Adam’s “I’m not going to be a big jerk.” speech as something honorable? Meet me in a couple paragraphs.

Of course, for an underwhelming loved ones visit, we have an underwhelming challenge. It’s a ropes course with obstacles we’ve seen a million times before, such that I feel no need to talk about the challenge beyond saying that it sucks. Jay, being thin but athletic, manages to win, and is given the right, one at a time, to take three player/loved one pairs along with him. Jay first chooses Will, which I actually think is a smart move. When picking people to go on reward, there’s really two schools of thought: take the swing votes to keep them comfy, or take the power players to reaffirm your allegiance. Both are valid strategies, and while I fall more on the “take the swing votes” side so as to prevent people talking without you being there, I can respect both. Which is why Jay’s next pick is incredibly foolish. As we’ll soon see, Will is the one most on the outside of the alliance of five, and needs to be kept feeling safe. But now, with a second pick, you have a golden opportunity to cater to the head of your alliance (Zeke), both to reaffirm your loyalty and gain favor with a power player. Who does Jay pick? Sunday. The person with arguably the LEAST power in your alliance. Fortunately for Jay, he has one more chance to correct this mistake by getting yet another pick completely wrong, by taking Adam. Now, I’ll grant you that Adam is more of a mover and shaker than Sunday, but at least Sunday was IN YOUR ALLIANCE! Now you’re catering to the enemy. I know Adam had a fairly touching reunion with his brother, but you can justify this. The man basically gave up during the challenge. Mask good strategy in a “Not wanting to reward weakness.” justification. Frankly, with the power trip Zeke’s on, I’m amazed he didn’t gun for Jay right then and there.

So, remember a couple paragraphs back when I asked who could buy Adam’s speech as honorable? Jay Starrett, everybody! The man admits that he and Adam have had his ups and downs, but that he respects him today. Well, good for you! Adam basically won the respect of an idiot by doing nothing.

Now, usually with the family challenge, you put focus on everyone’s family, doing a good job of humanizing the entire cast. But “Survivor” smells blood in the water, and apart from some shots of Jay’s sister, this segment is the Adam Show. I can definitely see why they go for this, as it’s compelling stuff, I just wish we could have devoted more time to other people as well. But here’s the gist of how Adam’s talk with his brother goes: It seems “Mom’s doing ok” does not translate to “Mom’s getting better.” Some technical talk about the ins and outs of cancer treatment boils down to that his mother isn’t getting treatment because her body can’t handle it at the moment, but that PHYSICALLY she’s feeling better. Somewhat nice news, but as Adam points out, somewhat marred by the fact that his mother isn’t likely to beat cancer at this point. It’s definitely a sad moment, one that I could mar by making jokes about how Adam’s brother has simultaneously the best and worst bedside manner ever, but out of respect for Adam, I won’t. It looks for a moment like Adam’s going to quit the game after hearing the news, and I’m actually ok with it. Normally, the one instance in which I don’t mind a quit is when people have someone at home who needs them. Think Jenna Morasca leaving “Survivor All-Stars” to be with her mother. The difference with Adam is time in the game. When Jenna quit, it was Day 8 in the game. She still had at least a month to go before going home again, and that’d be pretty hard to deal with. While I would completely have understood Adam packing up and heading home at this point, he’s got closer to a week left in the game, and while that’s more than enough time for something tragic to happen, the shorter time scale, coupled with his family’s love of “Survivor”, means that I’d probably have made the same decision in his shoes.

Speaking of controversial decisions, overwhelmed by his emotion at being given the family visit, Adam gives Jay his reward steal advantage. Now, this might seem like a repeat of the “Share information with Taylor” debacle all over again, but here, I don’t think it can be reasonably argued that this is a bad move for Adam. It builds more goodwill with someone who’s been pretty well against him from the get-go, and more importantly, it takes away the stigma from Adam. Bear in mind, the narrative around the reward steal advantage this season is that you’d have to be a complete douchebag to play it. This takes away a lot of the positive benefit the advantage can bring, so in a sense, using it to build goodwill rather than playing it for yourself is a smart move. Of course, a smart player might realize that because of this, it’s not such a nice gift to receive, but since Adam gave it to Jay, he doesn’t think of this. Emotion aside, I have to wonder if this wasn’t a bit of a passive-aggressive move on Adam’s part. “No, of course I’m not still bitter about the Mari vote! Just to show there’s no hard feelings, I’m going to give you the advantage that makes people hate your guts if it’s used.” Now, the obvious counter argument is that since the reward steal can provide SOME advantage in this game, isn’t Adam being kind of an idiot giving away potential power. To which I respond: He gave it to Jay. It’s a calculated risk, but I don’t see Jay putting that advantage to good use.

Our next morning takes us back to better strategy. Will, unsurprisingly after being excluded from a meeting between Bret, Sunday, Zeke, and Jay, is unhappy to be on the bottom. He claims that no one’s recognizing the moves he’s made in the game, and that he “Wants the credit that he deserves.” What Will fails to realize is that he ALREADY has the credit that he deserves. I kid, I kid, but seriously, apart from having an unnaturally deep voice for his age, what has Will done? Of COURSE he’s fodder at Tribal Council. Still, can’t fault his logic. Would have liked to see him stepping up sooner, but better late than never, I guess. Will recognizes Zeke’s a threat, and aligns with David, Adam, Hannah, and Ken to get him. Basic gameplay, but good nonetheless.

Our immunity challenge is only slightly more interesting than our reward challenge, and then only by virtue of having not been seen in a while. Essentially, tribe members hold a pole in the air using two handles, with the last pole hanging wins. This challenge directly copies “Survivor Nicaragua”, a bad sign already. While I will give credit that it’s different from most endurance challenges we’ve seen this season, and most endurance challenges we see in general, that does not make it interesting. Still a minus in the challenge department.

One would think upper body strength would be the key, but Ken ends up dropping out fairly early on, with Adam continuing his streak of good editing fortune by winning the challenge handily over Jay. This should solidify the plan to get rid of Zeke, and at first, our misdirection comes from the poor acting skills of David, Hannah, Ken, and Adam. Rather than act nervous and scrambly, they instead lounge about as if nothing’s wrong. Zeke, not being an idiot, deduces that they’ve got something up their sleeves, and thinking it an idol, his alliance decides to switch their votes to Ken. This WOULD be decent misdirection, were it not for the fact that we know that Zeke’s problem is a defector, not an idol, so it’s really no misdirection at all.

With Will talking about how firm he is going forward with David’s group, this victory seems a foregone conclusion. Only an idiot could mess this up now. Enter Ken McNickle.

Now, before I talk about the specifics of how Ken McNickle goes out his way to screw up his alliance, let me talk about Ken in general. Going back to my point at the top of the blog, from what I’ve been reading, a lot of love has gone Ken’s way. The general consensus seems to be that he’s handsome, charming, “real”, and a major asset to the cast in general. And those first three, I have to agree with. But I must disagree with the “asset to the cast” claim. Early on, I’d have agreed with you. Ken was such an oddball compared to his tribe that he stood out, but as a pillar of simplicity on a tribe destined to eat each other. And he caught an octopus. That was pretty cool. But, apart from this episode and sealing the deal on Adam’s flip-flop, what has he done? Bupkis. The man’s just kind of been there, voting with his alliance, not doing anything. An asset to the cast, based on the first four episodes? By that logic, Sherri Beithman was an asset to the cast of “Survivor Caramoan”, but you won’t hear HER being talked about positively pretty much anywhere in the “Survivor” Community. And my God, not since Matthew Von Ertfelda (“Survivor The Amazon”) have we had someone so completely CLUELESS as to how the game works, and someone who seems so disinterested in learning how to play it.

Don’t believe me on the “idiot” claim? Let’s watch how Mr. McNickle handles a vote that has been practically GIFT-WRAPPED for him. So, Ken is a little bit wary of whether or not Will is with them. Fair enough. Ken decides to “test” Will to see if he’s trustworthy. A little bit odd, but fair enough. Ken’s idea of “testing” is letting Will know that he needs to earn his trust, and here we run into our first major problem. You need Will to feel comfortable, Ken. Telling him he’s not fully integrated yet is just going to make the other alliance seem more appealing.

Oh, but the hypocrisy train just pulled in! Will, trying to show good faith despite Ken’s questionable line of questioning, lets Ken in on the fact that Zeke’s alliance is targeting him. Ken, after asking why they would vote for him (Ken, perhaps it has something to do with you being in the minority alliance and your chiseled abs making you a challenge beast), Ken immediately goes over to Jay and asks if this is true, spilling the beans that Will has flipped in the process. This in and of itself would be bad enough in terms of strategy, but I’d like to take this time to remind everyone that THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT KEN GOT MAD AT JESSICA FOR IN EPISODE FOUR! I mean, THIS is your “real” guy? The one who hates people who second-guess his alliance, unless he’s the one doing it? No wonder Will thought about going back to Zeke and co, who invoke the “Edgardo Maneuver” from “Survivor Fiji” and talk of switching the vote to Hannah, on the grounds that she’ll never be given the idol.

Despite his understandable annoyance at Ken’s playing, the smart move for Will, if he wants to win, is to stick with voting out Zeke. For all of my earlier snark, Will is correct that he needs at least one big move to his name if he wants to win. Granted, he has more connections to people in Zeke’s alliance (Bret and Sunday for an Ikabula connection, and Jay in general), whereas all he really has in David’s alliance is a loose Ikabula connection with Hannah. This is where we get into the difference between playing to get to the end and playing to win. The conundrum is simple: To win, you need to get to the end, but also show that you weren’t a passive player. Sticking with Zeke and co, Will has a MUCH greater chance of making it to the end, due to having more connections and not being seen as a threat. But Will also won’t win in this scenario. With David and co, Will’s path to the end is tougher, but if he DOES make it, he’s better off. On a game like “Survivor”, I say it’s better to go out in a blaze of glory than to make it to the end doing basically nothing. The shutouts of people like Natalie Tenerelli (“Survivor Redemption Island”), Gervase Peterson on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, and the aforementioned Sherri Beithman are testament to this.

Shortly before Tribal Council, we get a good round of Ken-bashing from David’s alliance before talk turns to who the target is. Nervous nellies David and Hannah naturally think it’s going to be themselves, but what’s really interesting here is Adam’s subtle inquiries into the matter. Spoiling things ahead a bit, Adam’s going to play his idol, which would normally be foreshadowed by Adam getting a confessional saying something to the effect of “I’m bringing my idol to Tribal Council tonight.”, but here, the producers go for something more subtle. By having Adam, the man with immunity tonight, be that interested in the conversation, subtly hints that Adam is thinking about playing his idol without spelling it out. Way to put faith in the intelligence of your audience. Please do it more often.

We get a very different, but still no less exciting, Tribal Council this time around. Thanks to hypocrite Ken, both sides know what’s going on, ad the producers wisely seat all groups of four together, with Will in the middle. What follows is not double-talk, but instead last-minute attempts to sway Will. Addressing Will’s complaint that he’s not a part of the alliance, Zeke plays his “I realign with people all the time” card, which works about as well as it worked on Jessica last episode, and isn’t helped by Adam chiming in about how Zeke doesn’t really value Will as an individual. David and Adam emphasize how this will help Will’s resume at Final Tribal Council, and try to convince him he’ll have more power with them, but get tripped up by arguing that they’re five equals, which even Jay is able to shoot full of holes. Jay even gets the final word, reminding Will of the bond and respect the pair have shared, leading us to an unpredictable vote.

Despite Jay’s last word being cause to worry, I’d say it’s not in Adam’s best interest to play the idol tonight. The logical move for Will is to vote Zeke here, and there’s still very much a chance that Will could do the logical thing. Moreover, since Adam’s immune, he’s not risking his own neck, and can save the idol for the next Tribal Council, should things go badly tonight. In doing so, he has a one-in-three chance of playing the idol on the correct person (one in two if he or one of his allies wins immunity), and disrupts the majority alliance at a critical moment. But Adam instead plays his idol on Hannah, evidently trying to learn from last Tribal Council when the idol was NOT played on Hannah.

Adam does at least guess the correct person to play the idol on in terms of who the other alliance was targeting, but as I predicted, it was pointless. Will does the logical thing, and sends Zeke home. Given his increasing arrogance, I can’t say it wasn’t deserved, but Zeke is still in the upper eschilon of characters from this season, so it is still sad to see him go. As to my thoughts on the strategy of voting him out, you already know that.

While I’m not as wild about this season as others are, I can’t deny that it’s definitely much improved since the swap, largely thanks to less emphasis on the “Millennials vs. Gen-X” thing, and episode quality since then ranging from good to spectacular. Not sure this episode quite hits “spectacular”, but for that Tribal Council alone, it comes damn close. I’ll give my thoughts on the season overall after the finale (as they can change drastically), but we’re doing better than I thought.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor MGX” Episode 10: The Perils of Victory

Tonight, I give you a shocking revelation: I don’t like the theme of “Millennials vs. Gen-X”. It’s contrived, unnecessary, and shoehorned in, making potentially likable cast members nearly unbearable with all the “My generation is better!” talk. Hell, I can’t even find it within myself to type out the full title in my blogs. Bottom line, this theme leads to a lot of annoying confessionals about the relative merits of one’s generation that do not need to be there, and trust me, there’s plenty of those tonight. But, I will give the theme one bit of credit: Where it works is when it shows that these supposedly “disparate” groups are, in fact, not so different. Oh, I’m not talking about the coming out conversation between Zeke and Bret, although that was nice. No, I’m talking more about the first half of our forced 2-hour episode, wherein the “Gen-X Civil War” as it has been dubbed kicks in. Chris, Sunday, and Bret go against David, Jessica, and Ken. Why does this make for a similarity? Well, think for a second. It’s now been four solid votes of old Millennials going home. Figgy, Michaela, Michelle, and Taylor, one right after the other. At this point, for the first time in the game, the old Gen-X was in the majority. And they just couldn’t handle it. Too many episodes of not playing the game (relatively speaking, as there was gameplay, but not so much internal intrigue) made them eager to turn on their own. Pretty much exactly what happened to the Millennials come the swap. True, the Millennials had the Mari vote to help tide them over, but they were pretty clearly dominating at this point, and they couldn’t handle it. It’s an inevitable fact of “Survivor”, particularly modern “Survivor”, that a lack of patience can kill. A tribe that wins too much early on can doom themselves later on by not being able to keep infighting to a minimum. That’s what’s truly remarkable about the Koror Tribe from “Survivor Palau”. Winning the vast majority of the challenges is one thing, but that they were able to do so and still stay relatively united is the true master stroke.

But here I am, putting the big reveal before the buildup. In fact, I think we need a bit more of a buildup before the blog itself, so let’s have another rendition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Much like tonight’s episode, we have a double-feature for you. First up is something I forgot to mention entirely last episode: Jay and the idol. Now, Jay ultimately doesn’t play his idol, but he did agonize about what to do with it. If he showed it off or played it, it might save him for a vote, but makes him vulnerable down the line. If he didn’t play it, he risked going home. Due to all the excitement at Tribal Council, I neglected this point, and it is really a tough decision. Really, Jay’s only move is to bring the idol to Tribal Council and play it by ear. I know I’m always the first to advocate for making decisions BEFORE Tribal Council, but as there’s a real chance Jay isn’t going home here, it really needs to be mulled over based on Tribal Council performance. Jay’s choice only becomes clear when Taylor makes such an ass of himself at Tribal Council that there’s no way Jay goes home. As such, the correct move is to not play the idol and hope for the best. Which is what Jay does. Kudos.

Out other point is actually a REAL mess-up, rather than just something I forgot entirely. I made a crack about the “eat or compete” twist being dropped after “Survivor Redemption Island”, but, in fact, it WAS used after that. “Survivor Blood vs. Water” was actually the most recent use of it before this season. My point about it being a while still stands, but it’s not quite as extreme as I made it out to be. Plus, it strengthens my point that a lot of “Survivor Blood vs. Water” blends together.

On to the episode proper, Adam starts out doing decent damage control, offering an apology for not telling people about his reward steal, and offering an explanation as to why. It seems heartfelt, and Adam doesn’t make a big deal out of it. Really, though, his saving grace is Bret, who turns the conversation back around to just how much of a jerk Taylor was for stealing food. I will give Adam this”: while I still think his overall chances of winning are shot, he has managed to mostly dig himself out of the hole he got into. No one really seems to be holding a grudge about his reward steal lie, or his being somewhat in on the food-stealing, and now that he’s not blatantly playing both sides, no one seems to be bothering him much. If Adam wants any chance at winning, this is the sort of break he needs. Adam also takes this time to talk about how badly he wants Jay gone, naturally ensuring that Jay is safe this episode.

Jay, meanwhile, is still not happy, big surprise. Despite Jay going all-in with Taylor on throwing Adam under the bus, Jay is now trying to rewrite history saying that he was against the idea, due to Taylor throwing him under the bus as well. Showing some more social adeptness, Jay leads people to the new food burial site, and what’s left is recovered. Hay’s still down, but he’s doing the right thing and keeping his head down, hoping the superpowers will eat themselves.

Sure enough, the next morning shows some real cracks here. It starts with Will finally realizing that allying himself with idiots MAY not be the best idea in the long run. I would use the “Rat from a sinking ship” metaphor here, but Will beats me to it. He full on partners up with Zeke, apologizing for voting Jay, pleading ignorance, and offering up information. Unfortunately for Jay, trusting Will with his idol is now backfiring, as that information is now leaking out. This does build trust between the pair, and as Jay is clearly not a power player anymore, I can’t really fault Will this move.

Will’s one caveat is that this information stay between himself and Zeke. Naturally, the very next scene is everyone else on the island finding out about Jay’s idol. While this does seem like a breach of trust, frankly, it’s the smart move. As Zeke points out, the more people know about an idol, the less powerful it becomes, due to it being easily countered. This also sets in motion the aforementioned “Gen-X Civil War”. Chris now wants to get Jessica out, due to her being a strategic threat. “But wait,” you ask, “Wasn’t that Sunday’s plan from last episode?”. Yes, but because Chris is suggesting it, now it will actually happen. Sad to say, but even though Sunday clearly has things going for her, she’s ultimately not the dominant power in the alliance. Sadly, that seems to be the case for MOST of the strategic women this season. Sunday, Jessica, Michelle, even Michaela to a certain extent. All have good ideas, some of which even get adopted, but ultimately, they’re at the mercy of the whims of the guys. Part of that has to do with the insanely lopsided guy-girl ratio at this point, but it’s still sad to see that we don’t get the rise of the awesome female strategist.

Morning also gives us more of a look into Hannah trying to be a better player, as she starts building more in-roads with her peripheral allies. Specifically, she enjoys watching a good sunrise with Ken, while enjoying idle chit-chat about beauty. And, if it was all strategic, I’d say Hannah was playing really well here, slowly building trust and relying on emotional bonds for later on. Unfortunately, Hannah has to go and ruin it by admitting that she has some romantic attraction to Ken. So instead, I can only say: “EWW!” I mean, Ken’s good looking and all, and certainly looks younger than he is, but the same could be said for Hannah. I mean, it looks like a guy in early middle age hooking up with a college freshman. I say again: “EWW!”

We come to our first of two reward challenges, as well as arguably the weakest challenge of the episode. Divided into teams of 5 (one person sitting out and having no shot at reward), players hop onto a boat that they pull across the water to a platform. Once there, tribe members head up one at a time to untie a key, slide down a pole, and put the key on a ring. Once all five have done this, the keys are used one at a time to unlock boxes, which must then be stacked four high so that they colored sides do not repeat a color on any given side. First tribe to do so wins a pizza yacht party right next to camp, because enough salt hasn’t been rubbed in people’s wounds. This isn’t a terrible challenge, with the pulling of the boat being cool, but it’s ultimately just another obstacle course, and as we see, the puzzle is complex enough that it’s really the only part of the challenge that matters.

Rocks will be drawn to determine who sits out, but before that, David volunteers as tribute. Water, after all, is not his forte, and he doesn’t want to drag either team down. In a rare nice moment on “Survivor”, everyone immediately tells David he’s not as pathetic as he’s shown himself to be, and tells him to buck up. David gets more than a little teary-eyed, and it’s a nice moment. Reminds me a lot of Coby Archa’s teary confessional on “Survivor Palau”, where he was happy to be on a winning team and showing that he could be good at challenges for once. In many ways, this one is even sweeter, with others affirming David’s worth, rather than himself. In a show in a genre where conflict is everything, a bit of over-the-top sentimentality is appreciated every now and again.

And in fairness to David, when the teams ultimately are drawn, I don’t see his presence being that much of a detriment. David ends up on a team with Chris, Will, Jessica, and Ken, while competing against Zeke, Bret, Adam, Hannah, and Sunday. David’s no more of a slouch in the challenge department than Hannah and Sunday are, and this is a challenge where, puzzle aside, big muscles will be key. All the big muscles (save Jay, who doesn’t have a shot at reward) are on David’s team. In fact, they even get out to a nice big lead, setting up David’s arc of proving that he has worth.

Lest anyone ever say that “Survivor” is faked, let this challenge stand in testament to the fact that it is not. You get a beautiful setup with David doubting himself, of COURSE you want him to win the challenge. But no, he and Chris choke on the puzzle, sending the other five on reward. David blames himself, but in the physical portion, he really neither hurt nor helped the tribe. Yeah, the puzzle choke is hard, but that’s at least as much Chris’ fault as David’s. My point is, don’t let yourself get down, man.

Our reward once again gives Bret the chance to get drunk as a skunk, accurately giving us the two sides of Bret. He’s either a fun loving goofball, or he’s an asshole. While the pizza yacht is actually decently far away from camp, Hannah points out that sound travels well over water, and that they ought to keep their celebrating to a minimum. Bret effectively says “screw that noise”, and continues to be somewhat obnoxiously cheery. Nobody really comments on this afterward, so I suppose it did no harm in the long run, but it’s still a mark against Bret.

Then again, everyone’s excitement becomes hard to contain when it turns out this was the secret “letters from home” reward as well, giving everyone a chance to be humanized a bit. We get some tender moments, like Zeke’s dad sending him his dog’s paw print with the letter, but, like Jenna Morasca (“Survivor The Amazon”) before him, the focus goes to Adam, due to the whole “family member with cancer” thing, which yeah, is pretty tragic. Though, strategist that I am, all I can think of is how this edit plays into Adam’s redemption arc. Since the merge, Adam’s been scum of the earth. If he’s not playing both sides, he’s keeping secrets. While it ultimately has very little impact within the game itself, from an editing perspective, Adam needs more scenes like this, and fewer neurotic scenes.

Back at camp, David is still upset, and may go for crying scene number two, especially after talking to Ken. To perk himself up, though, David dives into the “Gen-X Civil War” with a vengeance, reigniting his old feud with Chris, and wishing death upon him. Not really, but that sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? Not sure if David was tipped off beforehand that Chris, Bret, and Sunday were after Jessica, but he’s certainly returning the favor in kind. We see later that Adam is pretty firmly in his corner at this point, but that still only four people, so Hannah and Zeke will be needed to secure victory. As such, David makes it a point to talk to Zeke after the reward, putting Zeke firmly in the middle, as both Chris and David want him. Since Zeke is not Adam, he actually plays the part well, though he does show some preference for the David side by letting on that Jessica is being targeted. As to which side is better for himself and Hannah, it’s a tough call. Frankly, I’m not sure there’s a right or wrong answer here. Either way, you’re ensconcing yourself with one threesome, and pissing off another. Ultimately, the benefits are as follows: Sticking with David, Ken, and Jessica give you more options. True, both threesomes are fairly united, but between Adam’s link with Ken and Jessica and Zeke’s link with David, you’ve got more room to play. Even though Hannah shared a tribe with Bret and Sunday, they’ve never been shown to be particularly close, so the only real connection there is between Zeke and Chris. On the other hand, between David’s idol and the legacy advantage, there’s a lot more gameplay power between David, Ken, and Jessica, making them less desirable allies. Additionally, David, Ken, and Jessica would probably be more inclined to see being blindsided as a strategic move, whereas Chris, Sunday, and Bret would see it personally, given how much they talk about this upcoming Jessica vote as being partly fueled by revenge. As such, it might be better to put those who WON’T hold a personal grudge on the jury. On the whole, though, given the information that they have, I’d say the correct move for Zeke and Hannah is to vote out Chris. They don’t know about the legacy advantage, and they have at least SOME measure of control over when and how David plays his idol, making it less of a threat. Chris, if left unchecked, is a big threat to win the game, and since going against him offers more ways forward in the future, it’s the slightly better deal, though again, I wouldn’t fault either decision too much.

Off to our immunity challenge, which just barely misses out on the “Lamest Challenge of Episode” title only because the totems used look pretty cool. In another endurance challenge, our contestants stand on an increasingly narrow balance beam while using a bamboo pole to balance a totem on a thin board, last one still standing wins. Like I said, just another generic endurance challenge. Not much more to say than that.

Just in case you were worried that Disney was buying up everything you loved and held dear, fear not. “Survivor” is still alive and subverting Disney stereotypes. You see, Ken is one with nature. Being one with nature, he has animal friends. Ants, to be specific. But these animals friends are not so friendly. They cause Ken to lose the challenge, then claim the lives of Bret, Jay, and Adam. Alfred Hitchcock may own this show, but at least it’s not Disney.

Because they just couldn’t leave the underdog story alone, our battle comes down to Zeke and David, and though they do a good job showing both people struggling before David’s inevitable victory. For all my snark, I’ll once again admit that it’s nice to see David win, and that things would have been left dangling if David HADN’T had some sort of challenge victory. Plus, it’s nice to see some delayed gratification here.

Back at the camp, both sides agree to try and fake out Jay to get his idol played before once again gunning for each other. As this is a double-length episode, and we’re mostly hearing more debates about the sides I’ve covered previously, I won’t say too much about it here. Suffice to say that they do keep the mystery good, and this is where we see Adam being pretty firmly on board with David, Ken, and Jessica. Conversations about which side to go with are between Zeke and Hannah, and when approached, Adam goes along with the plan. He laments the target not being Jay, but also realizes that going too hard for Jay may lead to Jay being his proverbial white whale, and ultimately put a target on his back. Why, just look at what happened to Stephen Fishbach on “Survivor Cambodia”. He tried too hard to go for Joe Anglim (“Survivor Worlds Apart”), and he ended up going out because of it.

Apart from the mystery of the vote (which is done really well), the best way to describe this Tribal Council is “fun”. It’s very lighthearted in tone, belying the war and betrayal underneath. It’s actually fun to see this duplicity, and it’ll make a nice contrast for the second Tribal Council of the episode. Not to say that we don’t get any strategy talk. Hints of what’s to come are definitely there, what with talking about taking out big threats and cracks and divisions and all. But let me ask you this: What do you remember the most about this Tribal Council? Hannah coining the term “Trust Clusters” That is adorable, and while fun, the best Tribal Councils don’t get called “adorable”. It does, however, lend itself to easy humor, with the “Trust Clusterfuck” comment we’ll see at the next Tribal Council.

Really, the major misstep of this Tribal Council is that they do a horrible job of hiding that fact that Jay is safe. Talk quickly shifts to the fracturing of alliances, and while Adam’s paranoia and Zeke’s going full Keith Nale (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) and suggesting sticking to the plan do bring the subject back around to Jay, it’s clear even to Jay that he’s safe. Hence, he does the smart thing and doesn’t play his idol.

As I said before, this votes DOES do a good job of being nice and tense, making for a fun outcome. The smart move is made, and Chris goes home. I must admit, I’m sorry to see him go. I hesitate to say that he was a real character, but I also hesitate to say that he wasn’t. He clearly had potential, but he got shunted to the sidelines in favor of even more colorful characters. He had strategic chops, as shown in confessionals, but he was such a threat that, apart from the Rachel boot, things never really went his way. It’s a shame to see such wasted potential, but at least we can tell there’s potential there. Chris will be missed, and he’s someone I wouldn’t mind seeing on a “Second Chances” ballot in the future.

Heading off to what SHOULD be its own separate episode, we find that, once again, Jay was on the wrong side of the ballot, with himself, Chris, Bret, and Sunday voting for Jessica, while all the others went for Chris. Jay makes a point of congratulating himself in private for not playing his idol while apologizing to Jessica for voting for her. Definitely the right play to make here, and Jessica forgives him, probably because he’s a moron.

More interestingly, Bret is quick to jump ship. He acknowledges that Chris was a threat, and probably needed to go, personal bonds aside. However, Bret is now less interested in a “Chris” thing, and more a “Anybody but David” thing, once again swearing vengeance. Zeke, who is REALLY proving himself to be a master social player this episode, sees opportunity. Put it this way: what we’ve been seeing throughout the last several episodes is that, subtly, Zeke is putting himself in the middle of everything. Everyone likes him, and everyone wants to use him for their plans. This puts Zeke in the kingpin position to win, with his only rival being David. With David’s group fast growing in numbers, Zeke needs to make a move soon, and now that Bret and Sunday have come to his side, he sees an opportunity to take out David. Which makes sense, at least to a certain degree. As I say, David is the only real threat to Zeke winning the game at this phase, but that also means he’s good cover for Zeke. While Zeke has been subtle about his takeover, as we’ll soon see, it’s not as though no one noticed at all. David is the only one REMOTELY taking the target off of Zeke, and as Zeke has no idol to help him regain control after a coup attempt, it’s somewhat in his best interest to keep David around, so he has someone to target other than himself. It’s the same logic as Jeremy keeping Joe around on “Survivor Cambodia” to make sure that the target wasn’t on him. Can’t really fault Zeke’s logic too much, though, and it still wouldn’t be a bad move for him.

Coincidentally, David has ALSO noticed that he’s a threat to Zeke, or at least that Zeke is a threat to him. He talks to Bret and Sunday that morning, and to both of their credits, they do a good job putting up a front, even though they’ve already decided to turn on David. David is willing to be a bit more patient than Zeke, hoping to take out Jay and Will first. I’d say taking out Will before Zeke is a mistake for David, but I’ll actually admit that it’s good that at least SOMEONE is focussed on Jay. The danger with someone like Jay, an athletic moron with an idol, is that, due to not being seen as a strategic threat, one can slip into a “We’ll get him next time.” mentality, and then, with a few timely challenge wins, guess who’s in the finals with nary an enemy to be seen? Jay. It’s sort of the same logic as voting out the young unassuming female: the fact that she isn’t a threat makes her a threat. And no, the irony of someone like Jay being unassuming is not lost on me.

Unfortunately for David, his bid to gain allies backfires a bit, as he reveals his idol secret to Bret, who of course relays that information to Zeke, who relays it to Adam and Hannah, hoping to firmly get them both on his side. Hannah is the one who reacts in this case, admitting that while she has worked with Zeke in the past, he is a threat, and she contemplates cutting him loose and going with David, Jessica, and Ken. Again, happy that Hannah is trying hard to make big moves, but this is one that’s REALLY not in her best interest. As she says, Zeke is her number one ally. Giving that up is a big move. She would go from being the number two in an alliance and controlling the vote to having virtually no control. And while Zeke is a threat, David is a threat as well, and David has an idol. Granted, there’s something to be said for building a resume, and for Hannah to win, Zeke needs to go at some point, but it needs to be when it’s advantageous to her. If she were to go with, presumably, David, Jessica, Ken, and Adam against Zeke, the only real connection she has is with Adam. True, she was building something with Ken earlier, but that’s still a late start for her, up against three other people who’ve had more time to build bonds with him. Conversely, if she sides with, presumably Zeke, Jay, Will, Bret, and Sunday, she’s got at least something of a bond with all of them. Maybe not Will, but Will’s not exactly a power player in that alliance. Bottom line, this is the most cut-and-dried obvious move, so naturally the opposite will happen.

Having evidently saved the leftover “Challenge Awesomeness” from the first half of the episode, we get things poured into this reward challenge that I love. It’s a simple relay race with a snake puzzle at the end, but what makes it cruel is that the contestants hands and feet are bound, so that they have to crawl along like snakes. THAT is what makes for a unique and difficult challenge. I don’t even care that it’s a team challenge post-merge, it’s still awesome! And the reward of a picnic far away via helicopter is nice too.

Evidently deciding they were too mean last episode, the show decides to give the one sit-out (David successfully volunteers as tribute this time) the reward automatically, which I have to roll my eyes at. I know I said some niceness on the show makes for a good change, but this is too much! Come on, guys, make the sit out suffer! Or at least have them bet on a team to win, like on “Survivor Nicaragua”. That was actually a FUN part of that season!

Once again, our physical powerhouses get out to an early lead, but it’s the puzzle-solving team of Bret, Sunday, and Zeke that takes it in the end. Challenge is still cool, but once again, the puzzle kind of breaks things. They go with David on reward, and Adam takes this time to remind us that he has a reward steal advantage. He doesn’t use it, but admits that David having not earned the victory made him want to, which is actually a good point. One inherent disadvantage of the reward steal is that it pisses off the person who won, and by extension, people who might think it’s a dick move. If you steal from someone who didn’t compete, though, a lot of that goes away (as a side note, this also confirms that Adam can’t steal for his team, only for himself individually, taking away some of the power of the advantage), so it might not be a bad place to ditch the advantage. I feel like the gain isn’t big enough, though, so I’m with Adam in not playing it.

On reward, we once again get Happy Bret, mostly because he’s got more beer. He and Zeke have a good bonding moment where Bret comes out to Zeke. It would be entirely sweet, were it not for the shoehorned in “generational values” talk. It doesn’t RUIN things, but it does take the edge off. When Sunday comes back the strategy talk resumes, which is basically just another round of “Get David.”

Once our reward winners arrive back at camp, though, things get more intriguing. Quite out of nowhere, Hannah makes a decision about who to side with, and as I alluded to earlier, it’s the wrong one. She spills the entire plot to David, who, rather than man up and do something about it, moans and groans. It’s HANNAH who has to point out that David’s still in a position to flip the script, and David comes clean about his idol with her. From a viewer’s perspective, I’m happy about this development, as it means we get more intrigue, but again, as a strategy, it’s bad for Hannah to flip on Zeke, for the reasons I outlined earlier.

Not content with merely having the reward challenge be awesome, we get a cool immunity challenge as well. Each person navigates a pole through a table maze, unlocking a door once they solve it. They must then solve a slide puzzle to win immunity. Sounds simple, right? Well, the kicker is that the maze is attached to the other side of the door, meaning that apart from feeling one’s way around, there’s no way to know which way to go beyond trial and error. Simple though it is, there’s something clever about that idea I just can’t help but love.

For once, doing well in the first part of the challenge helps, as Jay blows everyone out of the water. Frankly, he wasn’t going home, so nothing is lost, but I must draw attention to Probst’s commentary. While many decry it as a failing of modern “Survivor”, I find it entertaining more often than not. Still, I will concede where there are times when he goes overboard. Unable to fall back on his usual “Thus and so, in the lead! Thus and so, struggling!” banter, Probst talks about how HE HAS NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT! Very meta, but this is one time where more silence might have been better.

Our pre-Tribal Council intrigue for this half blows the first half out of the water. Hannah, it turns out, is about as adept at playing both sides as Adam, and Zeke is quickly clued into the fact that Hannah is no longer with him. We also see the first bit of rust on Zeke, as he slips into some arrogant banter here that doesn’t suit him. Given that David may play his idol, Zeke switches the vote onto Hannah for safekeeping. Hannah actually picks up on this, and begs David to play his idol for her, but David dismisses it as paranoia on her part. Meanwhile, Adam is also feeling lukewarm about siding with David, thinking that Zeke might be the better bet. The irony is that, in the cases of Adam and Hannah, their each thinking of voting the wrong way. Hannah is attracted to David’s alliance, when her best allies are with Zeke, and Adam is attracted to Zeke’s alliance, when all his best allies are with David. Its kind of funny, and it leads to a good misdirect at Tribal Council.

Speaking of which, we get a MUCH better Tribal Council this time around. And by that, I mean chaos. There’s virtually no pretense this time around, and the mood is really negative for some reason. Both sides snipe at each other, with Mean Bret returning once again, claiming that Ken hasn’t really been in the game, and David and Zeke getting into a verbal altercation against each other. The nastiness is a problem, but it does make for more drama, and the fact that everyone is pop corning against each other helps make the barbs less comprehensible. Having Adam and Hannah whispering throughout is hilarious too, and helps build the tension. After all, there’s evidence to suggest the exits of either Hannah or Zeke. Plus, the inevitable “Trust Clusterfuck” joke.

Our clue as to the likely outcome comes when David caves and plays his idol (given how the Tribal Council was going, I’d have played it as well). It seems like he’s playing it for himself, when Adam pipes in. Sadly, he does not say “Hold up, Bro”, but he does make a similar plea. Adam claims he overheard the other alliance switching the vote to Ken, and thus, David plays his idol on Ken. At this point, it’s pretty clear where the episode’s going. Between Adam talking about not being fully on board with voting for Zeke, and suggesting saving a person who we never saw as a target, it’s clear that Adam voted for Hannah, and is just making sure David doesn’t play his idol for her.

At least, that was the LOGICAL explanation I bought into. No, it turns out Adam just made a mistake, as on both this and the revote, he votes for Zeke. Granted, it’s the SMART move for him, but it makes me wonder why Adam basically hurt his own alliance. Bad info, I guess?

Given Adam’s blunder there, I’d expect him to be the one to watch on the revote, but somehow, Jessica is the one Hannah begs to save her. She does, and the pop corning starts all over again as the tribe tries to come to a consensus. Both sides hold firm, and Probst stops the debate before it gets violent, ordering them to go to rocks. I was under the impression that THEY decided when a consensus couldn’t be reached, but given how things were going, I can’t fault Probst’s call here. Incidentally, this is the first time in the history of rock draws (all three of them), where I have to say, I don’t agree with going to rocks. While Bret, Sunday, and Will (the three vulnerable ones from Zeke’s alliance) are allied with Zeke, it’s not the firmest of alliances, and Zeke is a threat. Certainly, they can’t have bonded enough to be worth risking a boot on a rock. On “Survivor Marquesas”, the numbers were low enough that there was little room, and with two immovable pairs, there wasn’t a lot that could be done, and on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, with two threesomes vying for control, there was no other way to gain power than to take a chance. Here, when alliances are still very fluid? Seems like a stupid gamble.

Especially for a tearful Jessica, who is the victim of the rock. It’s really hard not to feel for her, especially as this is the most tears we’ve seen at an eviction since John Carroll (“Survivor Marquesas”) As a fan and strategist, I am sad to see her go. This season’s obsession with shunting female strategists aside, Jessica did have a lot of potential, much like Chris. At the very least, she deserves the dignity of a proper vote-out. She will be missed.

She also, unsurprisingly, wills her legacy advantage to Ken. Time will soon tell what it is.

One problem that can happen with shoving two episodes into one (and why I advocate for double Tribal Councils instead) is that they feel disjointed, and the first half can upstage the second half. If you’re going to do it, though, this episode is the way to do it. Both halves held their own, with things escalating both in intensity and in intrigue, and if you think about it, both episodes were really connected. We started with a debate of who should go: Chris or Jessica. In the end, both of them went, even though Jessica wasn’t a target the second time around. It still bookends nicely, and feels like a natural progression. Both votes, the side in power essentially got bored, and ate itself. Put simply, this was a GREAT episode. And man, if it doesn’t set up drama for next week.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor MGX” Episode 9: Will Can’t Have Alcohol

Guys, I have an announcement: Will can’t drink alcohol. No beer, no wine, no spirits, no mixed drinks. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Poor sap has to make do with only soda. And what a sad existence that must be. But let’s focus on the main point here, and that is that Will Wahl is not legally allowed to drink. The man must be abstinent while his tribemates are in the throws of Dionysian bliss. He cannot have a single drop of that sainted liquid that makes one drunk. There will be no imbibing of intoxicating beverages by the young man with the uncannily deep voice. And, just in case I haven’t made it clear, Will cannot drink alcohol.

Ah, what a traditional way to start a blog, talking about the main focus of the episode. Now we move onto the strategy talk, as the usual fallout from Tribal Council ensues, along with the time-honored tradition of calling the people who flipped on you “idiots”. Our culprit tonight is perennial idiot Jay, who brings up the point that Zeke, Adam, and Hannah are now on the bottom of the Gen-X alliance. I’m willing to admit that this point is fair, but on the whole, I can’t condone Jay’s assessment. After all, where would the threesome be if they had stuck with him True, they’d be the bottom of a seven-person alliance rather than a nine-person alliance, which is seemingly better, but I’d argue (and I’d say the later parts of the episode back me up) that the nine-person alliance is more fractious than seven-person alliance in this case, and, as Hannah will bring up later, that threesome have more power in the latter alliance, despite the increased number. Here’s my problem: I can, to a certain degree, excuse people saying “Well, why ISN’T my alliance the obviously right move to make?” before the votes are cast. But hindsight is 20/20, and for Jay to not even RECOGNIZE why his alliance might not be attractive to Hannah, Zeke, and Adam is preposterous.

Chris also takes the time to brag about how his position is improving. Which is true. Good assessment, Chris. Yeah, really not much more to say about it than that.

But enough about that, this is shiny, happy “Survivor” time, as Adam for once manages to not completely screw up consoling someone after the vote, talking with Taylor about why it was the correct move for him to go against Taylor. Namely, Adam points out that Taylor and Jay were gunning for HIM, a point that even Taylor can’t deny, so we quickly move on to talking about the dirt that Taylor and Adam have on each other. Adam knows about Taylor’s food stash, Taylor knows about Adam’s reward steal. This helps to justify Adam’s revealing of information last episode, a move panned by everyone but myself, it seems. Basically, Adam and Taylor are in a “Nuclear Option” situation. Both have information that could, if not destroy each other, then at least cripple each other’s games pretty hard. That is a way to build trust, albeit tenuous trust. And, given how the Cold War went in general, you could argue that the analogy makes for bad strategy, but I still see the point in it. Granted, Adam really needs to give up on this whole “Make Taylor and Jay trust me.” thing, since that ship has clearly sailed, but here, at least, he has one good attempt at it. I’ll give him credit, though: I really like his “If you wanted me to stick with you, why’d you try and vote me out?” confessional.

Taylor consoles himself with food, and his attitude is really starting to annoy me. What Taylor is doing here is effectively sabotage, not really any different from what Scot and Jason did on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, but at least they were TRYING to piss people off. Taylor really doesn’t seem to understand why it’s wrong, though he does at least admit that he’s doing it more to give himself an advantage than anything. I just keep thinking back to the likes of Julie McGee
from “Survivor San Juan del Sur”. She similarly stole food, and the castigation of her in response was a factor in her eventual quit. Taylor? True, he does get voted out for his trouble, but the man ultimately gets off pretty lightly for what I’d consider a serious offense. Stealing is one thing, but stealing from literal starving people is another thing entirely.

In keeping with our new upbeat attitude, we get our second instance of HANNAH attempting to console someone on the losing side of the vote. Having learned from her mistakes with Adam and Zeke, Hannah actually does a good job of talking to Jay about her decision. She’s friendly, but not condescending, and explains how her feeling of greater power by working with the old Takali led to her flip, and Jay, who really has very little choice at this point, seems to still be on good terms with her. Despite what episode 3 of this season might have indicated, Adam really needs to take lessons from her.

We head on to our reward challenge, and, in what may be an “Idol Speculation” first, I really feel no need to describe it step by step. It’s your average generic obstacle course, and ultimately in this case, the individual steps don’t matter. It’s boring, it’s a team challenge post merge, it’s for burgers and drinks at a spa, and Will still isn’t allowed to drink alcohol. That’s about all that really matters.

Oh, and Probst is making a big deal about the fact that teams will be decided by a schoolyard pick. This is often the case on “Survivor”, but rarely do they actually bother to show it. The only times they DO show it are when it has a major impact on the episode, like when the contestants of “Survivor Kaoh Rong” called out how it would fall down alliance lines, and skipped it entirely. Naturally, with something so impactful on the episode, we’re going to watch the pick go one by one, and see where it all goes wrong for one team.

Or, you know, we could cut right to the fact that the purple team is pretty much all old Takali, while the orange team is all old Vanua, with Taylor and Jessica being the only respective switches, that’s cool too. But surely if they brought up the schoolyard pick, then it must have major repercussions throughout the episode. I mean, the orange team picked by Hannah ultimately loses, so that must do something. Look, she’s even getting a confessional about it! It must lead to something this episode! SPOILER ALERT: This is the last time we hear about the schoolyard pick having any impact.

We get our requisite enjoyment of the reward, with Taylor bragging about his eating habits as a garnish. Then we return to a classic “Survivor” staple: the drunken idiot. Newer fans of the show may not be aware of this, as the tradition has dropped off in recent years, but “Survivor” used to have a mean tendency to give people just enough alcohol and just barely not enough food to have someone make a complete drunken ass of themselves. Think of Tom Westman’s performance during the merge on “Survivor Palau”, or basically any time “Big Tom” Buchanan (“Survivor Africa”) was allowed anywhere near alcohol. Unlike Will. Who can’t have it. Having no one named “Tom” on this season to take the fall, we settle for Bret, who seems to determined to prove all stereotypes about Bostonians true. He even sort of KNOWS he’s being set up, admitting beforehand that he should probably limit himself, though Chris informs us that this went out the window very quickly. Granted, Bret gets off easy, with the extent of his drunken exploits being a bombastic cannonball into the pool.

All is not calm, though, as Sunday comes out of the woodwork to deliver some intrigue. I said back in episode 3 (there’s that episode again) that I thought there was more to Sunday than the show was giving us, given a good remark of hers at Tribal Council. Then she quieted down until recently, and I wrote it off as my reading too much into it. But evidently I was correct the first time, as there’s some gamer left in Sunday yet. A fairly bad gamer, to be sure, but a gamer nonetheless, and that always leads to some fun with regards to strategy. Basically, the wounds from the vote where Jessica was saved haven’t fully healed, and while the pair are civil to each other, Sunday admits that Jessica probably needs to go sooner rather than later, especially as the old Takali a a fractured bunch. I would complain about this coming right out of nowhere, but in this case, I’ll give it a pass. This conflict would only really have arose starting in episode 5, at which point we had the switch, so there was really no need for Sunday to comment on her suspicion of Jessica until now. What I WILL complain about is the poor strategy behind it. I get not trusting Jessica, I really do, but holding the old Takali together is really in Sunday’s best interests in particular. At the moment, the old Vanua are chomping at the bit to get rid of each other. Like or dislike each other, if the old Takali can stick together for the next few votes, they’ve got this in the bag. Keep that majority, and ride it to the end. Granted, that’s not so good if you’re on the bottom of the old Takali, but if anything, Sunday is is the best position of the old Takali. She’s well liked, and so has a chance of winning no matter WHO she’s up against, and while she seems to be firmly in the Chris and Bret camp at this point, she could still potentially swing over to the Jessica, David, and Ken camp. Or, she could let all but one old Vanua go, and then use that old Vanua member along with Chris and Bret to gain a majority and a guaranteed finals spot, where again, she would have a decent chance at winning. Certainly there’s something to be said for making a big move and bolstering your resume, but as this season has demonstrated, one must wait for the proper timing. For Sunday, this is throwing out the baby with the bathwater, to use an old cliche.

But I want to like Sunday! QUICK! Cut to even worse gameplay! Oh, good, Adam is trying to ease tensions with his enemies again, that should be worse. Sure enough, Adam proves to us yet again that he can’t have more than one good soothing moment per episode, and ends up talking with Jay out in the water. Still bitter about the Mari vote, Adam gives him a “How’s it feel to be on the bottom?” talk, and while I do think Jay exaggerates QUITE how much of an asshole Adam is being here, I can’t deny that it’s not really Adam’s smartest play, and he does come off as kind of an ass in this case. Admittedly, Adam is at least not playing both sides of the fence, or at least is being more subtle about it, but the damage on him just keeps getting worse. Again, while making enemies of eventual jurors is a categorically bad thing, in the case of people like Jay and Taylor, it was inevitable due to the Figgy vote. But when Jay goes to complain about Adam to the group, thereby taking the talk away from Will’s sobriety for a minute, Hannah and Zeke join in on what an asshole Adam can be. When your CLOSEST ALLIES don’t like you, your chances of winning are shot. I still personally like Adam. As someone who’s got a naturally loud voice, I can relate to the whole “shouting in confessionals” thing, and I like how focussed he is on pure strategy. Mind you, the latter point is part of his downfall, but I’ll be talking about that when we get to Tribal Council. My point is that I’ve accepted the fact that Adam will not be winning this season. He may make it to the end, but I don’t see him really acquiring the votes necessary to win it all. Enjoyable to watch, but not good for winning.

After a really pretty sunrise, we see that Sunday’s quest is not done, as she goes to Jay about the possibility of using him, Will, and Taylor to blindside Jessica, which Jay agrees to, as he doesn’t have many options at this point. What is interesting to note here, though, is that this is further proof that Hannah, Zeke, and Adam going with the old Takali was the right move. Unlike Jay, Taylor, Will, and Michelle, who were a tight, nigh-unbreakable foursome, the old Takali, while in greater numbers, have difficulty working together. Push comes to shove, they’ll join for a vote, but those old divisions are there, and working in the favor of Adam, Zeke, and Hannah. It’d be one thing if the old Takali was a solid six who COULD be broken up by a good strategist, but this isn’t the doing of Adam, Hannah, or Zeke. The old Takali are doing this to themselves, with little to no outside prompting. Again, more evidence that Jay really is wrong in saying that the move last episode was a bad one.

Our immunity challenge is only slightly more remarkable than the reward challenge. A returning challenge from “Survivor South Pacific”, our tribe members hold a large wooden bow with a ball on top of it, while standing on a balance beam. At specific intervals, contestants will move down to a narrower section of the beam. If they fall off or the ball drops, they’re out. Last one standing wins. Pretty standard difficult endurance challenge. While it is a reused one, it isn’t overdone, and as it’s been five years since we’ve seen it, I’m willing to give it a pass in that regard. What DOES bug me are the bows. Could we put in at least a LITTLE work to make them look authentic. I know we’re kind of in the era of “Plastic ‘Survivor’”, but a little more effort would be appreciated.

Speaking of things from over five years ago, we bring back a twist no seen since “Survivor Redemption Island”, presumably put on hold to distance the show as much as possible from that God-awful season. If people want to, they can opt out of the challenge and eat grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, potato chips, and imbibe some soda and beer. Except for Will. He can’t have the beer. Just thought I’d clarify it.

Once again skipping over the important decision-making part of the challenge, we cut right to finding out that only Zeke and alcohol-free Will opted out, which makes sense, especially when you consider that you’ve got surfer dudes in the challenge, as our little puritan Will points out. I’m actually surprised MORE people didn’t drop out, though I applaud them their dedication to the game.

Normally I’d just skip right to the outcome of the challenge, but I do want to draw attention to one early drop out. Bret is out pretty early on, which is no surprise for a top-heavy guy, but the look of betrayal he gives the food and drink is just priceless. You know he just wanted to drive in the “Drunken Bostonian” stereotype a LITTLE BIT MORE, and instead has to settle for Will getting drunk. Oh, wait, I forgot, Will can’t drink alcohol. I guess Probst mentioning it IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING CHALLENGE wasn’t enough of a reminder.

Ken ends up winning the challenge, which surprised me somewhat. This is a challenge that doesn’t favor the top-heavy, and as a man’s center of gravity is higher than a woman’s, I’d have expected one of the ladies to take it. Probably Jessica, given her performance in the previous immunity challenge. Granted, Ken is not the most top-heavy looking guy, but the center of gravity thing is still a problem. Frankly, all this means is that the immunity necklace will not impact the ultimate vote.

With talk of potential immunity idols JUST NOW coming up in our majority alliance, they agree to split the vote between Jay and Taylor. Frankly, it’s the smart move. There’s always a chance at a fracture, and splitting the vote makes it easier for the alliance to fracture, but even if two people defected to Jay’s side, making the vote 5-3-4, they’d still be down in numbers come next episode. Ultimately, the idol is a greater threat. Sunday is the only one not on board, due to wanting to use Jay, but she pulls on her big girl panties with Bret and agrees to go along with the smart move. At this point, really the only indicator that either Taylor or Jay ISN’T going home is the fact that David stated that either Taylor or Jay was going home. Usually, that means you’re safe.

As Sunday’s plan never really got off the ground, Jay and Taylor go in for one last smorgasbord before Tribal Council, where Taylor brings up that Nuclear Option he’d been talking about all episode. With Adam’s name being about as low as “General Grievous” with the pair, they agree to bring it up at Tribal Council, as a last-ditch effort to save themselves. Why they don’t bring it up BEFORE Tribal Council, when they’d be more likely to get the plan changed, is a mystery to me. I know we’ve seen plans change last minute at Tribal Council more and more over the recent seasons, but the tried and true method of getting one’s plan in place beforehand is still better.

I could take this time to talk about the good strategic double-talk, including subtle bringing up of the old Takali fractures by the old Takali, but I think our nuclear war takes precedence. While I’ve still little respect for Taylor, if you ARE going to invoke a Nuclear Option at Tribal Council, this is the way to do it. Rather than just spill the beans on Adam and hope for the best, Taylor first confesses his own food-stealing sins to the group (lumping Adam in with him in the process) so that Adam has no ammunition against him, and then tells the group about Adam’s reward steal. Taylor here is banking on the recency effect. True, he did something bad, and I’d argue something objectively worse, but by bringing up Adam second, the focus is more likely to be on Adam rather than him. Taylor also has the advantage of playing offense here. Taylor knows what he’s going to say, while Adam has to react, making his argument much less coherent. Adam, in contrast, comes off as desperately trying to salvage his reputation, admitting to most everything, but denying that he actually ate any of the food Taylor left. To make matters worse, Adam must once again do all this at full volume, making his desperation all the more apparent. All the while, Hannah tries to hide in her shirt from the awkwardness. The particular moment that highlights what makes this discussion so fascinating is Adam’s making the fair point that stealing a reward, particular the loved ones visit (which has been the crux of Taylor’s argument) ultimately doesn’t matter much in the game. Taylor points out that it affects people’s emotions, which are part of the game. Basically, Taylor is making an emotional argument. Objectively, what he did was worse, actively sabotaging a vital part of camp life, while Adam is potentially taking away something nice from something else. Adam, meanwhile, if focussing on the logic of it. In the end, his advantage isn’t much of an advantage, unless used properly, whereas Taylor has already committed an egregious offense. It’s two opposing styles of playing the game, and it’s quite dramatic to see them come to a head.

It also does a good job at highlighting what Adam’s problem in the game is. Adam is a strategist. A pretty good one too, apart from having all the subtlety of a foghorn, by which I of course mean no subtlety at all. But he’s a PURE strategist. And while “Survivor” is a strategy game, Adam seems to completely ignore the emotional aspect of the game, which is his downfall. At the end, if you can’t get people, even your own allies, to like you, you’ve got no chance at winning the game. You need both strategic intelligence and emotional intelligence. Adam has one, but not the other. Fun to watch, but ultimately a losing strategy.

Of course, the same argument could be made in reverse about Taylor, that he plays on all emotion, no logic. And that would be fair. But Taylor’s gone now, so I feel like that point is obvious.

So, what wins out in a battle of emotion vs. logic? Well, as should happen in a game of strategy, logic wins out. Taylor is sent home, which I think is the right move. True, Adam has been pretty well branded as untrustworthy by most everyone left, but he’s also been branded an asshole, making him less likely to get a counter alliance together. Therefore, he can be picked off at any time, or taken to the end as a goat. Conversely, Taylor is a likable challenge threat who could easily slip past the radar and make it to the end, even winning. Plus, I would like to remind you, the man actively sabotaged the tribe. He’s EARNED his exit. And no, I’m not sorry to see him go. Everything out of his mouth was just completely inane, and his “holier than thou” attitude that made him the stereotypical “Millennial” this season wanted just became SO ANNOYING! One could argue that he was good as someone to nag Adam, but given Adam’s current standing in the game, I’d argue that we have plenty of that. Like I said, ultimately the smart move. Our old Takali plus Adam, Zeke, and Hannah alliance has a good thing going. It may need to be shaken up, but it’s too soon.

This was a different episode for this season, and I mean that in a good way. For the first time, by NOT focussing on the “Millennials vs. Gen-X” thing, we got some intriguing debates with the emotion vs. logic thing, and we got to see both sides fracturing, with some good setups for episodes to come. Add onto that an explosive Tribal Council, and the running gag about Will not being allowed to engage in underage drinking, and you’ve got yourself one hell of an episode. So much so that it deserves a…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5

The merge episode is one of the more distinctive parts of the show, and a list of the best and the worst definitely bears talking about. We’re an episode late, I know, but somehow it feels like the right time to get to it. Really not much more to explain than that, so, too the list!

TOP 5

5. “Survivor MGX”: A bit of an obvious choice, given how I praised the last episode, but I think it does stand out as one of the greats over time. Granted, my personal “short list” I drew up wasn’t so short, but this merge just has a lot more little intriguing connections that bolstered it up above some of the other choices. Really, the main thing that hurts it is that this is season 33, and so we’ve seen a lot of these plotlines done before, but this season did it well enough that it earned at least a number 5 spot.

4. “Survivor Cook Islands”: Two things set this merge above others: strategy and misdirection. When people think of the good parts of this season, they mainly think of Ozzy’s challenge dominance and Yul’s strategy. Both are prominently displayed in this merge, particularly Yul’s strategy. This is where we get him persuading Jonathan Penner to flip back over, and it’s just as good as you remember it. And while it was clear from the beginning that the Aitu Four would make a comeback here, the episode actually did a really good job of keeping us in the dark as to who would flip. We got Yul working Penner, but we also got Ozzy and Nate (yes, I’m sure there was a “Nate” on the season) bonding, and a potential flip there. Go back and give it a watch. I guarantee it’s a better episode than you remember.

3. “Survivor South Pacific”: Again, while a bit obvious, we had a really good resolution to a storyline here. Cochran overcoming the bullying of the old Savaii and changing up the entire game was really well built up here, and thanks to the narration of Coach, was really well put-together. Plus, we basically got our setup for the rest of the game, which made things exceptionally interesting.

2. “Survivor The Australian Outback”: Merges with food temptation are always fun, plus we had Jeff Varner get voted out over peanut butter, which is hilarious (except to him, of course). But it’s that dramatic ending that really makes the difference. One vote, from the first episode mind you, deciding the outcome of the course of the game is quite a big finish. Though, it’s not quite as big as our number one spot.

1. “Survivor Borneo”: This is one episode where I can’t disagree with the early season purists. Holding the record for most individuals to receive votes at a single Tribal Council, this could be argued as the true birth of “Survivor” strategy, given that a popular but threatening survivalist ultimately got the axe. Even as someone who was used to threats going at the merge, this still shocked even me. Seeing Gretchen go was just that powerful. And the mystery of strategy vs. emotions, much like with this current episode, made for compelling storytelling that has yet to be beaten.

Honorable Mention: “Survivor All-Stars”: Much like the season as a whole, this merge is a mix of entertaining and painful. We got heated personal discussions, and ultimately the less-likable characters (and Rupert) winning out. What gives it an honorable mention? That look on Lex’s face when Kathy keeps her immunity. That look alone deserves mention. I’m surprised there isn’t a meme of it.

BOTTOM 5

5. “Survivor Tocantins”: Rarely is there a “bad” merge on “Survivor”, and even calling the Tocantins merge “bad” is a bit of disrespect. “Underwhelming” might be a better word. We got some obvious strategizing, and good setup for later on, but no real fireworks to stand out. Plus, due to Joe’s medical evacuation, we were robbed of even having a dramatic vote to tend the episode. That alone is what sinks this merge to the “Bottom 5” list.

4. “Survivor Nicaragua”: If the merge on “Survivor Tocantins” has the sin of being underwhelming, then this one has the sin of being incomprehensible. Alina? The person we’ve seen next to none of is the one who goes home? That’s just not the stuff of legend, and really not what a merge should be.

3. “Survivor Cambodia”: Perhaps a more personal choice, but the sudden attack on Kass this episode was a real turn-off. I won’t say she did NOTHING to deserve the boot (she did piss off majority leader Andrew Savage at the previous Tribal Council after all), but like with “Survivor All-Stars”, the personal attacks, in this case between Kass and Tasha, really just brought the whole thing down. With too many people to be truly comprehensible, and no hilarious Lex-face to compensate, this one just doesn’t stand up in the end.

2. “Survivor Thailand”: While I often complain of the merge happening too early in more recent seasons, I will concede that the merge can happen too late as well. Such is the case here. With the old Chuay Gahn up 5-3, this just became a predictable Pagonging, brought down further by the slimy Brian Heidik winning the reward challenge, and us having to, unfortunately, learn more about his personal life. Gag.

1. “Survivor Guatemala”: Yes, even one of my personal favorite seasons, and one that I feel gets a bad reputation, does have the worst merge. The one real criticism I’ve seen levied against this season, apart from being forgettable, was that the cast was largely made up of assholes. I personally take this as mostly people being butthurt about Stephenie LaGrossa, who was America’s sweetheart after “Survivor Palau” showing her more strategic side, and people being unhappy that she wasn’t as pure and wholesome as they thought. In this episode, though, I can kind of see their point. The majority tribe at the merge usually has some power of the minority, but the second iteration of Nakum REALLY came down hard on the second iteration of Yaxha here. It didn’t help that the (admittedly intriguing) twist of opting out of the challenge for food was introduced her. While a good twist in general, this one served to highlight the tribe division, making non-assholes seem like assholes, and the assholes seem like bigger assholes. Not even a really cool immunity challenge can redeem an episode where most everyone is unlikeable and the bad guys win.

Honorable Mention: “Survivor Worlds Apart”: Really, there’s not a whole lot to hate about this merge. By and large, it’s just kind of standard. In fact, it almost didn’t make either list. Then I remembered that THIS was the season that gave us “Merica” for the merge tribe name. Still don’t know what they were thinking.

Bad merges aside, this episode of the current season was still really good. Those plotlines we saw starting in this episode seem to be growing, so hopefully intrigue will be the order of the day!

Will still can’t drink alcohol.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor MGX” Episode 8: Banana Chip Etiquette

I stated last week that while the merge episode of “Survivor” generally proves to be exciting, this one shaped up to be extra exciting. And I was proven right. Nice to have that happen once in a while. But, in fact, my correctness was SURPASSED. Not only did we get the conflicts and potential alliances that were foreshadowed, but we even got NEW conflicts and potential alliances that threw further layers of complexity into what may, in fact, be one of the greatest merge episodes of all time. No, there will not be a “Top 5, Bottom 5” list of merge episodes this week. I have to work first shift tomorrow, so getting to bed early is a priority, but also because we just had one only a couple episodes ago. But rest assured, that list is coming soon.

Post-Tribal Council, things are pretty subdued back at Ikabula. No one’s really upset, save Hannah, and even Jay’s bragging is pretty subdued, basically boiling down to him explaining that he felt Michaela was a challenge threat who needed to be gotten rid of before the merge. And I’ll concede he does have a point. My issue is not him getting rid of Michaela in and of itself. Tight as a foursome can be, it only gets you so far, and you;ll have to turn on each other at some point. Jay’s correct in that Michaela was a threat, both in terms of challenges and in terms of potential likability in future. Scoff though we may at here wearing her heart on her sleeve, that attitude can win votes at Final Tribal Council. My issue is with how soon it happened. As we see this episode, the numbers overall only favor the old Vanua by a small margin, and that can change at any time. Not that Michaela being here instead of Bret would ultimately have made a difference, but it would have given them one more number to work with.

Still, it seems they may have gained Bret as an ally. In what’s pretty much more screentime than he’s had all season, Bret becomes a major commentator about the upcoming merge. He has the generic grateful confessional for his skin being saved, but he brings up good strategy as well. He thinks he can trust Jay somewhat after this Tribal Council, but he also has ties to Chris, so there’s that aspect to consider. And that, in a nutshell, is why tribe swaps generally make for more interesting merges. When tribes remain the same throughout, or don’t stay swapped for very long, then it basically becomes a contest of “Who has the majority come the merge?” Given enough time, a tribe swap can make for more conflicting loyalties, which makes for a more chaotic merge.

Speaking of chaos, we also see one of the DOWNSIDES to voting out Michaela: losing the trust of Hannah. The Triforce really just don’t know how to handle her. One vote they don’t include her until the last second, and the other they don’t include her at all. Unsurprisingly, despite Jay having a good attempt at bringing her back into the fold, Hannah is more than a little upset at this development, and the “Freaks and Geeks” alliance seems reborn. Now, if only there was a merge coming so that might come to fruition…

Oh look, a merge! Yes, in what is sadly now typical “Survivor” style, we get a boat come in and gives the tribe five minutes to gather their things for the rest of the game. This is not necessarily a BAD way to do a merge, but when it gets done pretty much every season, you start to get tired of it. Plus, given how quickly we go through Ikabula and Takali gathering their belongings, we don’t really get a sense of the chaos we deserve from doing it this way. The one notch in Ikabula’s cap is that their merge confessional, courtesy of Bret (as was discussed earlier), is insightful, and somewhat different from your usual merge confessional. Adam, on Takali, gives us a more traditional “Now the game gets serious.” confessional. Look, I still love the guy, and he does get some great moves this episode, but he gets some pretty BAD ones as well, and one thing I can’t give him is original confessionals. Adam just doesn’t seem to have a knack for phrasing things in any way other than your generic confessional. Perhaps it’s the fault of him being a superman, in that he tries to do things as normally seen on the show, but your standouts each season generally aren’t the people giving generic confessionals. They’re the ones with a unique turn of phrase, a drastic departure of a personality. By trying too hard to stand out, in a sense, Adam doesn’t stand out much at all.

But, back to griping about the merge. We’re merging at 13 this time, and I’m not a fan. I get that “Survivor” wants to move away from double or triple Tribal Councils, and make sure that as many exciting people as possible make the merge, but the fact is that a 13 person merge is just too much to really keep track of on a non-returnees season. Even on those type of seasons, I’m a little leery, but at least there we have a better idea of who’s who because we’ve seen them before, and it could be argued that things need to be intensified for a returnees season, the fact remains that it’s just too much to keep track of here, and feels off. I’ve come to accept 12 person merges as a norm these days, but even those I’m not to big on. I prefer even number merges, but I’ll take odd, just make sure it’s 10 people or fewer.

What I can get behind is the new merge tribe name. We never see it made, it just shows up in the byline during confessionals, but it’s awesome. Lately, tribe names have ranged from just kind of ok, such as “Dara” (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”) to awkward like “Merica” (“Survivor Worlds Apart”) to the just plain awful of “#Huyopa” (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”), but this one manages to knock one’s socks off. Meet the new Vinaka tribe. I’m not sure if it’s a native word or not, but frankly I don’t care. It sounds epic, menacing, and seems to express more creativity (in a good way), than most recent tribe names. Part of me wonders if it’s not a combination of old tribe names, as some of the letter combinations seems familiar, but if it is, I can’t for the life of me figure out that combination, so kudos there if that’s the case.

We quickly get to partying, which is Jay and Taylor’s forte, as they rekindle old bonds. Subtlety, however, is NOT their forte, and Bret and Chris are quick to notice, going off and talking about how the old Vanua may be more united than previously thought. However, one could argue the opposite, as Hannah, Zeke, and Adam go off and rekindle their nerd alliance. If anything, the old Takali are far more united than them, and that’s where the conflict comes in, since there’s draws on both sides. Bret and Sunday have a connection with Jay, and Jessica and Ken were debating doing something with Taylor, so there’s connection to the Triforce, but David and Chris have ties with Zeke, and Jessica and Ken could also build on their thing with Adam, so it’s all very loopy and twisty-turny. Yeah, not feeling very creative in my descriptions tonight. Point is, it makes the road map of alliances all the more complex, which makes it harder for the audience to figure out who’s going where, and that’s to be commended. Unpredictability is almost always a good thing on “Survivor”, and when you can add that with interesting strategic discussions, you’ve got yourself an episode for the die-hard fans to eat up.

You’re going to notice a pattern with my commentary on Adam tonight. Every move he makes, I will have an opinion on whether it’s good or bad, and every time, the exact opposite is going to happen. We start with a repeat plotline, where Adam uses the tribe’s distraction over food to go and search for something. He claims it’s a “merge idol”, and admittedly it’s not far out of the realm of possibility for that to happen. However, that’s usually because one or more tribe idols was not found, and we know this season that they all have been found. Thus, Adam’s search seems pointless, and like skipping out on goat-hunting before, seems like it’s a loss of valuable bonding time, especially given his social problems later.

Adam is, however, rewarded for his efforts. Not quite in a “hidden immunity idol” way, but in an advantage way. Tied to the roof of tree mail is a note telling Adam that he can steal a reward from someone after it’s won. For once, an actual “Survivor” first when it’s been promised! And a really good one as well! On the surface, this might seem like a pretty pointless twist. Yeah, it’s better than nothing, but what power does it really have? Well, a lot, depending on how you use it. Say, for example, you’ve got a late-game challenge for an advantage in the next immunity challenge. Then, that would be QUITE the advantage to use. Or, say you don’t want a certain group of people going together on reward. BAM! That group’s broken up. What really makes this interesting is that how powerful it is depends on the skill of the player. Held onto long enough, and used at the right time, it could be incredibly powerful. Used at the wrong time, and you get yourself a nice meal while pissing someone off royally. With the great potential to screw or be screwed, this is a twist I’m hopeful we haven’t seen the last of.

Then, Taylor decides to further throw a wrench in the plans of the Triforce, by actually pissing people off. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll actually have a word of praise for Taylor later, but what he does here is foolish. As with most merges, there is a merge feast. As with most merge feasts, there is too much food to go around. So, you stockpile it for the tribe. But for Taylor, evidently altruism or collective need is not a concept. He squirrels away a lot of the food in a jar, and pulls a Will Sims (“Survivor Worlds Apart”) and keeps it for himself. Amazingly enough, he gets caught by Bret, who isn’t happy, further damaging the potential of any alliance between the old Takali and the Triforce.

Oh, but let us not forget Adam, who makes a move that should work, but doesn’t. Adam once again makes a valiant attempt to mitigate the hate against him for the Figgy vote, by bonding with Taylor. Granted, this could have the obvious downside of getting caught with the food as well, but Adam’s a lot more subtle than Taylor, so he pulls it off well. He then uses mutual food eating to bond with Taylor, basically trying to do what he attempted last episode in consoling Taylor, only he does it better. There’s still an apology in there, but Adam does a better job of playing it cool and trying to explain himself. I’d actually be on board with this move, were it not for the fact that he goes overboard. Trying way too hard to regain Taylor’s trust, Adam reveals his reward steal advantage, which at first seems ok. After all, it’s not a totally overpowered advantage, and sharing information can be a good way to bond. The trouble is that ship has sailed. Granted, Taylor deserves credit here for doing a really good job of playing stupid, and getting Adam to give up information for nothing, but Adam really needed to dial it back. Case in point, Adam takes things too fast with Taylor, and tries to target Will. Now, I get where Adam is coming from here. You want to try and get Taylor to be good with you again, and on your side, if possible, and that involves subtly weakening his alliance. Targeting Jay or Michelle, who have been his inner circle since the beginning, might set off alarms, but Will is a relatively new addition to the alliance, and so Taylor might be more amenable to that prospect. That is, if he were interested in an overt strategic game. A flaw in many superfans, Adam included, is that they tend to think of the game in pure strategy, and that selling things that way is a surefire path to victory. The trouble is, not everyone thinks like that, and will respond poorly. Adam doesn’t seem to realize that Taylor is the type of guy who’s turned off by overt strategy. If you took a long time, and worked it in subtly, you MIGHT be able to sway Taylor, and given his crusade, even that’s a longshot. I get Adam wanting to mitigate the fallout from his blindside, but he needs to take it slow.

Next morning, everyone’s plans get outed. Bret outs Taylor as a food thief, further throwing a wrench in potential alliances, and Taylor outs the targeting of Will to Jay and Will, thus getting Adam’s name thrown out there. Zeke, however, overhears them, and relays that information back to Adam, who’s understandably concerned now. I’d normally fault Jay and Taylor for not doing a simple 360 to make sure they weren’t being overheard, but given that Zeke seemed pretty far away, and the conversation had been going for a while before he approached, I’m willing to let it slide.

Our first immunity challenge, as Probst points out, is an oldie but a goodie, dating all the way back to “Survivor Africa”. Our tribe members stand on a small wooden perch, holding their hands over their head. Their hands a chained to bar, which is attached to a bucket of paint, which will drop when the bar is pulled. Last one standing wins. A simple but tough endurance challenge. I do prefer water to paint, as the latter seems very un-“Survivor”, but adding both hands makes things seem tougher. The real reason for the two-hands aspect, though, is so that people are sure to get paint all over themselves when they fall, which is a funny visual. In single hand iterations, people could pretty well avoid the water/paint, but here, you’ve just got to take it. We don’t get any temptations either, which is also a bummer, and this challenge is overdone, but since it’s been a while, I’ll give it a pass.

As to our individual immunity idol… It’s just kind of ok. A wood necklace with some bones, a shells, and a tiki in the middle. The pointy bits are a plus, but there’s just a lot of empty space, which I tend not to like in immunity idols. Granted, an immunity idol can also be too busy (see the individual immunity idol of “Survivor Worlds Apart” for an example), but in general, less blank space is better. This one is hardly the worst, but I don’t think it stands out overall.

Will gave us a confessional about needing to win before the challenge, so naturally he does. We do get one fun moment in there, though, when Will, Jessica, and Adam all try and act tough, only for Hannah to call them out, and admit to her FACE hurting, in a challenge that in no way involves her face. Hilarious. Also worth noting: Will is the first man to ever win this challenge in any of its forms, so good on him there.

Back at the camp, Adam is naturally upset, especially when his name gets tossed around. There’s dissent, though, as Michelle feels that infighting amongst the old Vanua will only strengthen the old Takali. Not a bad thought, but I have to disagree with Michelle here. Adam is as much not with you as any old Takali, and being willing to sacrifice one of your own might actually endear you to the old Takali more, and help earn a majority. Still, it’s dissension like this that helps make this episode exciting.

Fortunately for Adam, Taylor’s food stealing seems to have sent most of the old Takali into the arms of Hannah, Zeke, and Adam. Unfortunately, we’ve got another “Jefra vs. Tony” debate of “Survivor Cagayan”, as the old Takali can’t decide whether to target Michelle, since she’s unlikely to have an idol, or Taylor, since he’s a challenge threat. Of course, the real best target is Jay, since he has both qualities and an idol, but they’ve no way of knowing the latter point, so I don’t hold this against them. Between those two, it’s pretty well a toss up, but like with the “Jefra vs. Tony” debate, I’d say go with the one less like to get an idol played on them. Make sure you keep those numbers. Plus, in this case, despite Taylor’s physical prowess, I’d argue that Michelle’s smarts make her a bigger threat overall. Most of the group seems on board, but Ken goes all Sarah Lacina on us and tries to gun for the physical threats. This, naturally makes Adam nervous, and in the one categorically bad move of the night, tries to talk to Taylor about saving his butt. Now, I understand Adam’s nervousness. If you can’t get a coalition solid, and you’re on the chopping block, it’s a bit nervous-making. But Adam should know by now that Taylor has been amongst those throwing his name out, and so cannot be trusted. Yet Adam keeps trying. As he himself explains, he’s basically trying too hard to be the mastermind and play both sides of the fence. Which can be a good strategy. If done right. Which it isn’t.

You see, Adam is falling into the Matthew “Sash” Lenahan trap from “Survivor Nicaragua”. Sash was a schemer from the season, good at playing multiple sides of a conflict, and even making impressive comebacks after losing his allies. The trouble was his transparency. Everyone knew he was a schnook, since he didn’t really bother to hide it, and it cost him in the end. Same case with Adam. The dude is smart, and has had his victories, but you need to keep in on the down low. His scheming is such that even his ALLIES start to turn on him. Zeke reads him the riot act in confessional, David gets a bit leery, and Hannah pulls him aside to tell him to calm down. When HANNAH, she of the challenge sit-out panic attack is telling you to chill, then you know you’re doing something wrong. To his credit, Adam does pull back and relax, but the damage is done, as he seems to be the only firm target going into Tribal Council, and potentially a unanimous one. It looks like only his idol can save him now.

Once again, we get a very fun Tribal Council, and this one can be divided into two parts. First up, the food part, in which the hunger of the tribe as a whole and Taylor’s selfish behavior is brought to the forefront. Taylor tries to defend himself by… basically stating that he ate not because he was “hungry” but because his body was crying out “emergency!” So, basically, he was hungry. As pretty much everyone else there says, ALL their bodies are saying that, but Taylor’s the only one to act on it. What we really need is to bring back the Heroes Tribe, so they can explain Banana Etiquette to Taylor.

We then move on to our strategy portion of Tribal Council, which starts out pretty standard, but really heats up, especially when Taylor gets to talking about trust, and no so subtly calls out Adam. Adam’s facial expressions here are priceless, and the back and forth a really good way to round it all off.

Kudos to the editing team here: they really build up a potential idol play. One must also give Adam credit: it took balls to not play that idol. With all that talk and those looks at Tribal Council, I’d have played it. But then, I’d have wasted it. Evidently Hannah, Zeke, Adam, and the old Takali were able to firm up a plan, and Michelle is sent packing. Not their smartest move, since Jay is probably the biggest threat in that alliance, but still better than Taylor overall. While she isn’t the biggest loss, and I’m happy Adam is still around to triumph, fail, be goofy, and have an advantage that can be played in future, Michelle is still something of a loss. For one thing, her exit makes the most gender-lopsided merge yet even more lopsided (it’s now 9-3 in favor of men), but she was also a beacon of some strategy. Not the greatest, but she will be missed. At least she made the jury.

Like I said at the beginning, this is a damn fine merge episode! We get a lot of good convoluted strategy, good character bits, funny confessionals, and great mystery at Tribal Council. Definitely up there with the greatest of all time. Next episode looks to rehash a lot of the points from this one. Will it be the sequel that surpasses the original, or will it be a rehash that sends us reeling?

-Matt

Title credit to Jean Storrs.