Survivor


In this week's episode of Survivor we saw a shifting up of the tribes and another power play by the weak to rid the game of the strong. Obviously this disgraceful digression in the game is going to continue to occur as we move forward and ranting about how much I dislike Cirie is not going to change that outcome. All I have left is hope that in the future the game will be organized in such a way that there is more incentive to keep the best players; keep those that are the best Survivors.

I was initially excited by the proposition of mixed tribes rather then fans versus faves as the fans had been killing themselves by getting rid of their best players and I thought that this would turn the game on its head. It did not. Now that Joel is gone, who incidentally deserved his fate, the Malakal will wean off the remainder of fans being that they will have the numbers and know at the merge that they will still have the numbers once they rejoin their friends. There is no reason for them to try to win anything beyond reward and actually with the loss of Joel the odds are against then doing so anyways. Even the great Ozzy can not single handedly haul along such wastes of space as Chet and Cirie.

The reality is, they will probably even help in their own losing cause. Now that they are up 4-3 numbers wise (in that tribe) over the fans, they can just pick off the other 3, push to the real merge, get rid of the remaining fans and then let the game begin again amongst themselves.

My hope is that Johnathan realizes that he is not part of the larger plan being outside the small inner circle of Vets and immediately sides with the fans and maybe pulls along Eliza. That is the only thing that can save this game for me at this point (except maybe Cirie getting sucked into the Pacific via a riptide.)

Ozzy might be a great athlete, but keeping Cirie around is not good for his chances at winning this contest. She is manipulative and it is almost comedic to watch how she can say just a couple words and he is eating out of her hand. He is in a bad place being isolated from the other girls who might be able to manipulate him in a way that would better suit him over the long term.

Poor Erik! Did you see the look on his face when they got rid of Joel? Talk about total defeat in a man's eyes. I feel sorry for him as he has quickly become one of my favorite players. To be returned to such a defeatist atmosphere after surviving his initial tribe must be quite a blow (Oh and then next week finding the fake Ozzy idol. Ouch!)

There is still a chance that things can turn around on the island, but it is not looking good.

P.s. I think my "favorite" part of each episode is when Jeff announces the person that was voted off in "last night's" tribal council. The looks of utter shock (the cameras go in for the reaction shots every single week like clockwork) are priceless. I don't care if they were all on the beach together and saw a cast member get hauled away by a great white shark and then the following day Jeff said that cast member had been voted off by defualt. We would still have those crazy reaction shots!

"OMG! How could it be? INSANE! We never saw it coming! By the way Jeff, Who is Mikey?"

That was the most frustrating episode ever.

I cannot tell you how relieved I was that Ozzy had the white pebble. He is one lucky kid. What would he have done if he didn't, he would have ended up on the other beach with the hidden immunity idol safely hidden. He didn't tell James or Amanda where he hid it, only that he had it.

I can't believe they are letting Cirie manipulate them. I see her point and if I was her, damn straight I'd be doing what I could to save myself. But how stupid really for Ozzy and Amanda to let her take control like that again, especially after they hated voting off Yau-man.

They just better get rid of Chet next. If not there is no hope for this game.

Having said all that, I really think getting rid of overbearing Joel was the best thing they could do for the tribe. Yes it weakens their strength, but no matter how strong you physically are and you have one person intimidating and forcing his opinions and aims onto everyone you are not going to win either.

I agree whole heartedly with Chet that it was Joel that lost that immunity challenge. You could argue that Chet is weak and he didn't stand up to Joel and that's why they lost. But I'm sorry, Chet can't be expected to take that abuse and have no one take his defense. How Joel treated him was disgusting. I was appalled and cheered when he voted out.

And I have to say that it totally sucks that my two favorites are now on opposite tribes. I can only hope that James is such a huge asset that he will make it to the merge.

As much as I dislike Penner, I really hope his knee gets better soon and he isn't voted out as a liability because he can't perform in challenges. I thought it was hilarious that Probst was loosing his cool with him during the immunity challenge.

I missed the previews because I was watching to American Idol to see who got the boot.

I am quite sure that no matter which beach he was on he would have been able to keep the immunity idol. I am guessing it is in his bag of personal effects (where all immunity idols seem to be hidden.)

As for James and Ozzy being on different teams, it doesn't really matter as they are still on the same team in the big picture. Like I said above, they are just going to get rid of the fans, then merge, then get rid of more fans (and Jonathan.)

I couldn't disagree more. As entertaining as it was to watch Joel drag Chet along the reward challenge course, it is quite clear that if anyone else would have been Joel's partner - they would have won. Chet should have been the first person voted off the island and no matter how much trouble Joel stired up in camp he is at least capable of doing the most simple of tasks. Wait until next week (you have to assume that there is a water challenge every other week) when Chet blows it for his team for the 4th straight time...

Chet should not have been cast in the first place. He has no business on a show like The Weakest Link Survivor!

That was the reward challenge that they were paired up in. The immunity Challenge Chet was in charge of directing where the puzzle pieces should go and Joel stepped in and took over. Over ridding all of Chets commands.

For the pairing of Chet and Joel in the reward Challenge I am not sure how that came about it, anyone could see that was a disaster waiting to happen. Joel is an a-hole and there really isn't anything that anyone could say to make him right about anything in my eyes.

I'm not arguing that Chet should have gone. I agree he should have as the weakest player. But Joel needed to go first. Get rid of the poison. Being strong is not worth the drama and head butting that would have ensued if they let him stay.

He wanted control of the game. Which is something he had not earned, I don't care how strong you are, if you aren't going to play nice and you make ridiculous demands you deserve to have your ass booted.

Don't get me wrong, I hate Joel, but Chet is worse in my eyes. If he was of any value in the immunity challenge he would have done what was needed to make the puzzle, regardless of the background noise. The reality was, he (and his cohorts) had no idea what they were doing and were beaten by the smarter crew.

That is the problem with Chet. He is not strong or smart. Look at a small guy like Yau-man. He was never the strongest, but you knew that no matter what:

A. He was going to give 100%
B. He was going to use his brain to defeat the challenges
C. He would not quit half way through

Having a person like Chet on Survivor is an insult to the game. That is why it is so hard for me to continue on...

By getting rid of Joel and keeping Chet, you guarantee that you will lose the remainder of the physical challenges (being that they have James with no counter.) It is simple as that in my book.

But like I also said.....they probably want to lose the rest anyways....

Oh....and I am sure by next week Cirie will have sold Ozzy on keeping Chet instead of Erik and another person I enjoy watching will be sent home.

Basically if you take my list of favorite to worst players, that will be the elimination order.....