Blood Vs Water – Episode 2: Rule in Chaos

 

A second solid episode after last week. Could it be possible that we’ll have a very good season ahead of us? Let’s not get too excited, we all know the potential for redemption island to mess up everything.

And before we go further in this week’s episode analysis, I have an announcement to make. So last week, I decided to create a weekly award that will be given to the player that had the biggest impact on the game each week. It can be a good thing or a bad thing. The first award was given last week to Gervase for single handedly having his loved one, Marissa, voted out because of his behavior not hers, opening the way for a new way to play the game this season: voting out people according to what their loved ones did.

Something was missing for this award. It was a name. After a small conversation with Gervase on Twitter, it was decided with his blessing that the award will be called the don’t-let-that-fool-you award! A bit long, I know, but fitting, and it’s not every day that something is created on this blog in collaboration with a Survivor contestant, and not any contestant, but the OG (by the way, I missed what “OG” stood for. Anyone?).

 

@davidplusworld go with #2 has a catchy ring to it haha

— Gervase Peterson (@SayGerv) September 21, 2013

 

Ok, let’s move on to our weekly analysis and let’s see who got the award this week.

 

Redemption Island

 

 

And just like that Rupert Boneham is the first out of the game. Good. I may not dislike Rupert as much as many other fans, but I’m very happy he’s not going to hog precious camera time with useless comments like he did during Heroes Vs Villains. Apart from that, I don’t really care which one of the three was out of the game.

Also, if Probst hopes that the winner of the challenge gives the clue to the hidden immunity idol to anyone other than their loved ones this early in the game, he’s really fooling himself. Of course Candice Cody gave it to John. Who else?

OK, I rarely say good things about Candice, but very good insight from her as to why Marissa Peterson was voted out. Of course the Gervase thing was just the way for Brad to garner more votes, the real reason was that he felt threatened by Marissa when she antagonized him right at the beginning of the game.

I guess this is the paragraph where I’m supposed to say something about Marissa, but honestly, I have nothing to say. OK, I have one: she didn’t expect Gervase to step down in the arena, did she?

 

Galang

– Aras Baskauskas: I loved the whole “zen” atmosphere that Aras most likely brought to the tribe (and that Colton hated so much). Why have drama when you don’t need drama? Also, you have to love the bromance with him and Tyson. Before the game, I was hoping those two would form a partnership, not sure if it would happen, and apparently it did. I’m pretty happy about that. Also, the alliance I was hoping would get formed did get formed: Aras, Tyson, Gervase, Tina and Monica. Basically the five people I find interesting and I wouldn’t mind meeting and interacting with in real life. And in this alliance, I’m pretty sure that Aras is the one in charge, in a under-the-radar kind of way. In other terms, Aras is playing the same game than in Cook Islands so far, and why should he changed as it brought him a million bucks the last time.

– Colton Cumbie: Of course Colton has changed… Yeah right… There is playing hard and there is playing like Colton, creating drama where there is none, pitting people against each other for no reason, wanting to go to tribal council as often as possible (I still remember the One World fiasco when he convinced all the men to go to tribal even though they had won immunity). Except that this time it’s not working. You’re not playing with newbies, half of them not that bright, this time around Colton. The fact that nobody had talked strategy yet should have been a big warning signal for Colton. Oh Colton, they are speaking strategy, no need to have any doubt about that, they’re just not talking strategy with you, because they’ll get rid of you as soon as possible, and I’ll thank them warmly for that.

– Gervase Peterson: Not much about Gervase this week, except that he celebrated a lot when they won immunity this time too.

– Kat Edorsson: Not much about Kat either. We haven’t really seen her yet, she doesn’t seem to be in an alliance, I’m afraid that she’ll be pretty invisible this season. One interesting tidbit from her on Twitter today. She says that apparently both teams were trying to throw the challenge. Galang to get rid of Colton before he succeeds in trying to poison them I guess, and Tadhana, because Hayden thought that Kat was in trouble. Not sure what to think of that.

– Laura Boneham: Nothing to say about her this week, except for one thing; if you think she’s integrating in her tribe, sure, she doesn’t seem to be making enemies, but look in the previous picture who on the outs – literally – in the seating arrangement of the tribe. Picture, thousand words, all that.

– Laura Morett: She was invisible this week and… I didn’t miss her.

– Monica Culpepper: I’m glad that Monica found her way in the dominant alliance, even if she’s pretty much at its bottom. Now, I want her see backstab Colton as for some reason, he seems to be trusting her.

– Tina Wesson: Not much of Tina either. She’s learning that Survivor in its 27th season has evolved a lot since season 8 (yep, no trolls like the Hantzes or Colton back then). I’m not too worried about her though. Her strong point is her social game, and if Survivor has changed in nine years, human interactions haven’t.

– Tyson Apostol: Aras and Tyson cuddling was pretty cute/hilarious/strange, but that shows one thing: how close those two are. I’ve mention it before, but the best teacher I had to analyze Survivor was Tina Wesson when she won Australia and she explained that to know who is aligned with whom, watch more than listen. It’s all about who’s sitting with whom, who’s cuddling with whom, and so on. Tyson is in a pretty good position right now. I just have a very bad feeling, especially seeing next week’s preview. Tyson voted himself out of the game once, I really hope he won’t do it a second time.

 

Tadhana

– Brad Culpepper: Surprisingly, not much about Brad this week. Sad, I was hoping for another math lesson.

– Caleb Bankston: Caleb is quite invisible so far.

– Ciera Eastin: So maybe Ciera is a bit smarter than I suspected. When she learned that Rachel was going to vote for her, she and Katie did the smart thing: vote for John. If an idol had come into play, that would have saved her.

– Hayden Moss: Is that just me, or does he have the deer in the headlights look all the time? Is that just the way he is all the time, or is it him adapting to Survivor? Not sure. So according to Kat on Twitter, he threw the challenge to save her. Mmm… Beyond whether it’s true or not, I wonder what made him think that she was in trouble. Because she sat the challenge? Has it ever been a sign of being in trouble? I almost want to say that it’s the contrary. If you want to get rid of something, you let them take part in the challenge, if you lose you can blame it on them and vote them out. Has anyone who sat out a challenge been voted out right after? I’m not even sure that has happened. I’m not sure how well Hayden knows Survivor.

– John Cody: John made a huge beginner’s mistake: not sharing his idol clue with his tribe. Now he’s clearly on the outs. Also, his sub-alliance with Rachel was too obvious apparently. Same goes for his reason for not wanting her to be sent to redemption island, to protect Candice. John is kinda screwed at this point. He’s on the outs with his alliance and they don’t really need him anymore. Nobody in that alliance (except Brad?) thinks that it’s an “until the end” thing, so it quickly becomes a number thing. It would have been risky to get rid of John now, from a 5-3 they would have been a 4-3, a very unsafe number advantage, getting rid of Rachel, they’re now 5-2 and they can trim the extra weight next vote with no problem.

– Katie Collins: Not much about Katie this week. While John’s mistake may have given her more time on the island, she has to find a way to gain advantage soon, or she’ll sail to redemption island pretty soon too.

– Rachel Foulger sent to redemption island: When I thought that she was close with guys, especially Vytas. Whoops. She didn’t really stand a chance, especially when the only guy she actually was tight with is the one who’s on the outs. Too bad, I wanted to know her more. It could still happen.

– Vytas Baskauskas: he’s taking control. Of his tribe and also of the game. So far I feel that all the returning players are kinda waiting for the merge with as little damage as possible to be reunited with their loved ones and see what to do then in terms of alliances and such (that could change as soon as they start losing challenges though). On the new players tribe, they’re all excited to be playing the game, making the usual beginners mistakes and all that. And then there is Vytas. See, I think that Vytas doesn’t care whether he aligns himself with Aras or not when merge comes. He’s playing for himself. I’m not sure there are many people like him this season. Last week I suspected that he was close to Rachel, maybe because he had to know that Aras and Tyson would become close. What does he do this week? He’s instrumental in voting Rachel out (who could have been a strong ally) with explicit purpose of having Tyson go to redemption island. Officially to weaken Galang, but what if it was also to weaken Aras? As I hoped and said before the game, I really thought that Tyson and Aras would work great together. I suspect that Vytas knows Aras better than I do, and I suspect that he probably even knows Tyson better than I do, so he must have come to the same conclusion. So yes, by voting out Rachel, he’s targeting Tyson, but by targeting Tyson, he could really be targeting Aras, who really is his main threat right now. Is that a great move? Or is it a mistake? Time will tell. But in the meantime, Vytas is the second recipient of my don’t-let-that-fool-you award! Congrats Vytas!

 

 

Next week on Survivor:

Is Colton quitting? On the one hand, good riddance. On the other one, I want to see him being voted out, quitting will be too anticlimactic… again…

Is Tyson volunteering to go to redemption island? Please, say it ain’t so, that would be the equivalent of voting himself out again.

 

Next person voted out:

If Galang goes to tribal, Colton is the obvious choice. Laura B. is still the second obvious choice.

If Tadhana goes to tribal, John is out of the game.

 

Winner Prediction:

Right now my money is still on Vytas. Aras and Tina are not far behind. I have much less hope for Tyson.

 

You want to read more about Survivor? You should read those fine people’s blogs:

• Super Jude’s blog. Probably the best Survivor blogger 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 recap on EW is much much more than just a recap.
• Andy Denhart at Reality Blurred.
• more to come…