Is that just me or would “dumb and dumber” have been a better title for this episode? And I’m not only talking about the Beauties tribe here. Let’s see into more detail.
Aparri (Brawns)
– Cliff Robinson: He doesn’t know it yet, but he got really lucky. Lucky that the Brains tribe was so hopeless and lucky that the immunity challenge involved shooting baskets. I really like him more and more, but now that even his number one friend is ok with voting him out, I don’t think he can go very far. However, the team reshuffling of next week could save him. Now can he make the right alliance to go far? Not sure.
– Lindsey Ogle: I suspect an invisible edit for her.
– Sarah Lacina: Really Sarah? I thought you were smart. Wanting to throw a challenge in order to vote someone out who is no danger for you whatsoever is beyond lame. Sure, because of Tony’s lie, she thinks that Cliff is gunning for him, but even if he was, that’d only be two votes against her. The worst part is that had her plan to throw the challenge worked, whoever between Lindsey and Cliff had survived tribal council, would have really gunned for her. I have lost a lot of respect for her as a player that episode. However to her defense, I think it’s just that having returning players almost every season now, we kinda forget as viewers that there is a learning curve at this game, and that early mistakes are often made by newbies (which is probably the main reason why returning players always have an unfair advantage against newbies).
– Tony Vlachos: The problem with liars is that they can sometimes become paranoid. It was interesting to see how he instantly started to become suspicious of Sarah and Woo for no reason whatsoever (especially because Sarah was doing a good job at making Woo that fourth vote they needed if they wanted to vote Cliff out), just because they were having a conversation without him. if you base your alliance on deceit and manipulation, you don’t really have an alliance. Tony is being too devious for his own good, and I suspect that’s going to blow up in his face sooner or later.
– Trish Hegarty: Not much of a story right now either beyond the fact that she seems tight with both Sarah and Tony now.
– Yung “Woo” Hwang: Woo surprised me when he was willing to vote against Cliff, but I’m still not sure how strategic he can really be. His rationale for voting against Cliff wasn’t as much strategic as it was the usual “he doesn’t need the money, we do.” I need to give him props for refusing to throw the challenge though.
Luzon (Brains)
– J’Tia Taylor finally voted out: What an embarrassment she was. I mean, sometimes people suck at challenges, but they have redeeming qualities. She didn’t. Maybe she is a decent person in real life. I don’t know. I don’t want to know. The throwing the rice in the fire thing was and will always remain unexcusable. Good riddance.
– Kass McQuillen: She was afraid to make the wrong choice at tribal, and I kinda understand her logic. However, not voting against J’Tia for the previous vote was the wrong choice. I still think she can play well, she’s also in the learning curve.
– Latasha “Tasha” Fox: Same for Tasha. I believe that she made the right move keeping Spencer. Sure he may be less loyal than J’Tia, but he won’t also do something stupid and unexpected.
– Spencer Bledsoe: Spencer wins this week’s don’t-let-that-fool-you award for basically saving himself from the vote with a very strong showing during challenges (no, he’s definitely not a Cochran-erzatz as I feared when I first saw him – don’t get me wrong, I like Cochran, but mostly Cochran 2.0), as well as being the real (and only) brain in this tribe and being able to use reason to convince Kass and Tasha to keep him. Now he has gained two allies, even if nothing forces him to stay loyal to them. And while it’ll all depends on who will be in each new tribe, he has to be careful not being too much of a “free agent”, I suspect that it’s a unsafe thing to be right now.
Solana (Beauties)
– Alexis Maxwell: Oh my god… She is dumb…
– Jefra Bland: And she is very bland.
– Jeremiah Wood: He’s in a bit of a delicate situation. How much do the other ones trust him now? Not sure. He’ll have to be smart about his next moves. However, I have trouble seeing whether he is smart or not, but I’d be tempted to say no.
– LJ McKanas: Concerning LJ, he seems to be the more well-rounded player in this tribe, but the dinosaur and egg comment… Come on! Still, he’s safe for a while and pretty much in control of his tribe (too bad the reshuffling will most likely change the balance of power).
– Morgan McLeod: I gotta admit, I didn’t have much respect for Morgan as the game started, but I’m starting to have some. The way she threw Jeremiah under the bus after tribal was perfect, it felt true and not a desperate move to safe herself (even if it probably was). It does’t change the fact that the tribal reshuffling will most likely save her newt week, as she had pretty much no chance to survive the next tribal council otherwise.
Next time on Survivor:
Reshuffling of the tribe means that a new game is starting, so I have no idea what will happen from there.
Next to go:
No idea.
Winner prediction:
Right now, I’d say that Spencer definitely is getting the “unlikely” winner edit: overcoming adversity of a very lame tribe, saving his ass by his own merits and so on.
More:
- 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)
- I usually don’t care recaps (why would I want to read a summary of what I just saw on TV?) but Dalton Ross‘s is much much more than just a recap.
- more to come…