The day started very well. I had the day off, and on my side of the planet, Survivor is at 10am, so I got to see it live (as well as the Know-it-alls podcast) for the first time in years. Then, it all went downhill from there. I should have suspected that something was wrong as I woke up pretty much under the weather and I got sick for the rest of the day (gastroenteritis, I haven’t had one in about 20 years, that sucks). I’m still not feeling too well, so I’m not sure how long/interesting this week’s analysis will be.
But enough about my digestive system and one thing is certain, I will not let Jeff Probst and the medical team take me out of the blog.
Last week, I bitched about the editing. I’m still highly unhappy with it, but I think I’m starting to understand how it works this season. If you want screen time, you have to create drama or make things happen. I mean, it’s always be like that, but this season even more so. Seeing the amount of screen time Shamar got, I was thinking that he would last long, seeing Laura’s edit last week, it seemed that she’d have an impact on the game. Nope. Both times nope. They were just the people creating the drama and making things happen, so they got a lot of screen time regardless how important they were to the game. So who knows, people like Erik, Brenda (who are obviously laying low after Francesca’s boot), or even Julia and Michael may actually last long and possibly win. We’ve had almost invisible winners before (not that I approve).
Gota Tribe – the Fans
I’m starting to feel bad for them. I mean, they had a uphill battle from day one, but things are not looking up at all for them. Although the best thing that could happen to Gota – if there is no tribe swap, and that’s a big “if” – would be to keep on losing a bit more. This way, at the merge, they’d be a very tight small group facing a very disunited tribe of Favorites. This situation almost always turns to the advantage of the small tight group (Samoa, Cook Islands, Philippines, etc.) If there is a tribe swap, they’re in a lot of trouble.
– Eddie Fox: He really is an idiot. From start “they voted Hope out because she was pretty” to the end “I’ll change my view of the tribe if they don’t vote me out tonight” (you’re still next to go).
– Julia Landauer: She was mentioned three times tonight. Wow. But I’m not sure we heard her say something. Did we?
– Laura Alexander voted out: I feel bad for her. She really had a lot of potential, but she was too much of a challenge liability. Was it the right move to vote her out? Only time will tell. I’m tempted to say that it is not. As mentioned by someone (Sherri?) even with Eddie and Reynold they’re losing challenges, so they’re not that indispensable. As I previously mentioned, if there is no swap, you want your tribe to be very tight when it’s really down in numbers, and I’m not sure how tight Reynold and Eddie will ever be with the rest of the tribe, although there is still hope that they bond with Matt and Michael, at the expense of Sherri and Julia. If there is a swap, they’ll flip in a heart beat and help decimate the rest of their former tribe before being taken out themselves.
– Matt Bischoff: The edit shown that he was the instigator of Laura’s vote. Good for him, as Michael and him are the ones who have the least to lose and the most to gain from Laura being voted out as – if the lines start to be drawn along gender line, as it could – they’re now in a much safer position, both within their own alliance and within the whole tribe. I guess that if I deserved awards like some of my fellow co-bloggers, he’d get my player of the week award.
– Michael Snow: See Matt.
– Reynold Toepfer: Still a bit pretentious douche (so he has no respect for the other players because they’re playing the game and it’s not going his way? classy). He’s still around because he’s the best at challenges and he had an idol. Now that the idol has been flushed, not sure how long he’s going to last (once again, it seriously depends on the presence or absence of swap). On a side note, no, it was not a stupid move to play his idol this week. He had no reason to believe the other players that told him they were going to vote for Laura as they had lied to him twice already.
– Shamar Thomas medivaced: I’m not sure I have anything to say about Shamar anymore that hasn’t been said anywhere else. I wanted to like the dude, I really did, but he was just insufferable. I still believe that he’s a cool guy in the real world but that Survivor is simply not made for him.
– Sherri Biethman: In one episode, Sherri’s game got completely destroyed as she lost her two main allies – although it’s not completely clear how tight she was with Laura. She’s not done, far from it, she should and probably will try to remain tight or even tighter with Matt and Michael, but it won’t be as easy.
Bikal Tribe – the Favorites
As they keep on winning everything, we don’t really see anything very interesting about them, and that’s a shame as many tensions are accumulating, and we don’t see enough of what every player thinks.
– Andrea Boehlke: Strange reaction from Andrea when she seems upset that Phillip is giving nicknames to everyone. I’m sure she’s not really upset and that they decided to show this part of her interview for a reason – probably she’s becoming more and more paranoid – see with Corinne last week – and she’s so eager to make a big move that both will come into play later.
– Brandon Hantz: Funny how he thinks he’s fooling Phillip, when Phillip is actually fooling him with the whole “you have a nickname you’re part of the alliance now.”
– Brenda Lowe: Really, we don’t see enough of her. I guess she really is laying as under the radar as possible when both her reputation and her alliance with Francesca are really playing against her right now. I guess she’s simply hoping that they keep on winning until a swap or the merge when she could possibly save herself and have more control over the game. Will it happen?
– Corinne Kaplan: No Corinne this week, right?
– Dawn Meehan: What about Dawn? She’s also been quite invisible since episode 2.
– Erik Reichenbach: Erik is in the same situation as Brenda. I’m not sure how tight they are though.
– John Cochran: Cochran is basically in the same position as Dawn right now, but we see much more of him. Why is that? Because he’s an excellent narrator/camera whore? Or because he is getting the winner edit?
– Malcolm Freberg: Not much about Malcolm either, except his hilarious – yet offensive – comment about “Philippino Gollum.”
– Phillip Sheppard: So, Phillip just included every single tribe member in his alliance. I guess he’s keeping on emulating Boston Rob, with the major difference that Rob was in control of his zombies, Phillip just thinks he is, and just thinks they are zombies – because they’re not going to tribal council). Does he really think he has fooled Brenda and Erik? Hard to tell. Right now, it’s very hard to tell where Phillip actually stands in the pecking order. Will everyone keep on play along for a while and let him believe that he’s in charge? Or will he get voted out earlier than expected?
Next week:
And there we go. Brandon has a major breakdown, Jeff Probts calls the episode “Survivor history” so I’m pretty afraid that what I was fearing since I read his very erratic pregame interviews will happen: he will completely lose it, and hurt himself or someone else and will be taken out of the game. Remember that there are three ways to be out of the game: voted out, medivaced, taken out because you physically assault somebody else. I’m afraid the latter is the “history” Probst is referring to. I just hope that his victim won’t be actually injured, that’d be bad.
Next person voted out:
Brandon is probably out.
If there is still a tribal council and the Favorites go, hard to tell who is out. Probably Erik.
If the the fans tribe goes, Eddie is a goner.
Winner prediction: Cochran is sitting on the top of my list right now. Dawn and Michael not too far and they have been joined by Matt while Sherri is out right now.
And now, the usual links to the other analysts I really like (sorry for not posting them last week).
- Rob has a website and a podcast and bloggers and a great “know-it-alls” show with Stephen Fishbach. Rob Cesternino was “the smartest player to never win the game” (with Fishbach in my opinion), he now has the best website about Survivor.
- Superjude’s blog, always interesting, even when he’s grumpy.
- Stephen Fishbach also has a column with People.com.
- Dalton Ross is always great and hilarious at EW.com
- Jeff Pitman at True Dork Times is also one of the most hilarious (and smart) Survivor blogger out there.
- more to come…