Wow… That was quite an episode and quite a tribal council, wasn’t it? Without further ado, let’s deep into it.
Redemption Island
Not much about redemption island today. For a minute, I was afraid that after winning, Laura Morett was going to jump from her platform and push Caleb Bankston‘s tower to make sure Tina Wesson survives another day, but it was not necessary. Caleb’s faulty tower fell by itself.
Kasama
– Ciera Eastin: Last week I called Ciera a little idiot, and well… I don’t see how I can call her any differently this week. Last week was the moment to take over, and she didn’t, she voted Caleb out (most likely losing his jury vote). What’s worse than not shifting alliances when it can allow you to take control of the game? It’s to do it the following week and for what? For a tie that gives you 33% chance to be voted out this week and more than that the following week, instead of 0% and a sure way to the final four. So what she is number four in her alliance? In those final three years, it’s not such a bad spot to be in as you have a very good chance that number one and two of the alliance will try to vote each other out before the end… Stupid, stupid Ciera. Right now, all over the internet, everyone gives her credit for attempting big moves… Mmmm… Sure, better that than playing the Katie game, but what’s the point of those big moves if they hurt your chances more than they help them?
– Gervase Peterson: Oh Gervase, why do you have to shoot yourself in the foot from time to time? Although, this is part of what makes his charm. But still, three times in one episode is quite a lot. First by painting a target on his back when he said that he has as much of a threat as Tyson during his exchange with Hayden at the beginning of the episode, then for the reward, that was silly not to take Ciera. When you’re very tight with someone like he is with Tyson, you should make a deal: you tell each other in advance that you won’t bring each other on a reward. Note for future contestants: you bring the bottom of your alliance on rewards, not the top (and you make that arrangement with your top ally beforehand). Sure Ciera was cool with it at first, but it has to have factored in when she decided to go with Hayden and Katie. Finally, tribal council is never the right moment to tell the bottom of your alliance who is being “recruited” by the other party that she is indeed the bottom of your alliance. For all of those moves, Gervase almost won his third don’t-let-that-fool you award, but he doesn’t, because someone else made an even bigger impact on the game this week:
– Hayden Moss: OK, now I understand why Hayden is supposedly a big deal. Usually the purple rock (or white rock apparently) is something every player wants to avoid, we’ve seen some notorious events where one players screws half of the players remaining, himself included from fear of the purple rock (Hi John Cochran in the South Pacific season), but no player has ever attempted to get there to save himself, because don’t let that fool you, by managing to convince Ciera to flip and force a deadlock, Hayden wasn’t as much targeting Tyson (of course he was doing that too) than saving himself. What’s interesting is that he was also throwing both Katie and Ciera under the bus by doing that (after all there were more chances that one of them go than Tyson), but apparently no one noticed, not even Ciera and Katie. Still this was brilliant, the whole thing, saving himself, forcing the deadlock, switching the vote from Tyson to Monica to make sure Tyson draws a rock. Had it been targeted against anyone else, I really wish it had worked. But that will most likely be Hayden’s legacy on Survivor, a series of sometimes brilliant attempts to take control of the game (last week too) that all failed. I think that his rookie mistake was to not take control of his game much earlier, before the merge.
– Katie Collins sent to redemption island: Just like every other episode this season, I don’t have anything to say about Katie. Oh well… Yes, one word about her (and Tina’s) loss this week: my thoughts are with them.
– Monica Culpepper: Not much about Monica this week. At this point of the game, I’d really like to know more about her strategy and her thoughts about what’s going on, but I think that as she’s playing the “loyal and honest” game, her strategy is to stick with Tyson (and to a lesser extent Gervase) no matter what. They are her original alliance, Tyson is her number one ally (even if Gervase is Tyson’s), and that’s her strategy. Monica is old school like that. I don’t think that’ll make her win the game though.
– Tyson Apostol: If there were still any doubts that Tyson is going to win this season, his confessional about Rachel and having his chances to win taken away from him before, with a few tears included, sealed the deal. If that’s not a late game winner confessional I don’t know what is. Apart from that kudos to him for finding the idol again (tip for future contestant: the clue is just a small part of the idol finding process, seeing how the camera operator react is as important if not more, if they follow you closely in your search, you’re getting closer), and kudos to him for keeping it secret again (tip for future contestants: stop telling everyone you have the idol, it’ll get you into more trouble that it will help a large percentage of the time. Now I can’t wait to see how Tyson is going to react to Ciera next week. Be careful Tyson, you have every right to be pissed, but don’t treat her like another Sierra of seasons past, that could get you in trouble, especially with the jury.
Next week on Survivor:
Will Monica betray Tyson? Nope, I don’t see that happening.
Next person voted out:
If Hayden doesn’t win immunity he’s history.
Winner Prediction:
I think that at this point, it’s a lock for Tyson.
You want to read more about Survivor? You should read those fine people’s blogs:
- Super Jude’s blog. One of the best Survivor bloggers out there.
- Rob has a website, a podcast and an amazing know-it-alls analysis.
- Jeff Pitman’s True Dork Times is a must read every week.
- Stephen Fishbach’s blog too (now with illustrations by Erik Reichenbach)
- Dalton Ross’s replacement recap on EW is much much more than just a recap.
- more to come… or not…