This episode was hard to watch. It was quite emotionally draining (sure nothing of the proportions of what the Bikal tribe went through, but much more than watching Survivor should be) and not satisfying at all (no Probst, if you ever read this, that was not good TV, that was the opposite of good TV). And this blog post will be hard to write because there isn’t much to analyze in this episode. Brandon imploded. It was not a surprise. It was not fun to watch. As much as I like to talk trash about some contestants at times, they know what to expect when they go on the show (not that I’m going to talk trash about them, but that they’re going to be shown in unflattering ways on national TV). However, I’m not sure Brandon has this awareness, or if he does, he doesn’t control it, he doesn’t understand it. And in any case, he should have never been back on this show. At this point I’m just glad that no fist fight actually happened as I was afraid last week.
Gota Tribe – the Fans
– Eddie Fox: Nothing to say about him really today.
– Julia Landauer: Nothing to say about her any day really.
– Matt Bischoff: Nope, nothing to say about him either today.
– Michael Snow: In impressed me in the reward challenge, I didn’t think he was so strong. He impressed me much less in the idol hunt.
– Reynold Toepfer: I still dislike him, don’t get me wrong, but I find him more and more interesting as a character, just as a character though, not as a player.
– Sherri Biethman: When a player is voted unanimously, I always wonder who is with the plan for real, and who just follows because they’d alienate themselves from the majority if they voted any other way. I was wondering about Sherri last night, and we got our answer today. Also, the way she was portrayed today was interesting. Until now, she was the mastermind of the tribe, but today she almost looked like a fool, or at least the one who lost the most, which is not far from the truth I guess.
Bikal Tribe – the Favorites
– Andrea Boehlke: I’m not saying that she caused Brandon’s meltdown, but really Andrea, did you have to tell Brandon that Phillip was considering throwing the challenge? That’s not even bad strategy – this has nothing to do with strategy – this is just bad understanding of people’s psychology.
– Brandon Hantz self-destructed: Really, I’m not sure I have anything to say about his meltdown. It was expected.
– Brenda Lowe: Did you notice Brenda’s knee during the reward challenge? She couldn’t run, and she’s obviously injured. However, as we never saw the injury happen, I assume this will be inconsequential for the rest of her stay in the game, but her lack of airtime still tells me she won’t have any impact.
– Corinne Kaplan: Talking about talking trash about players, I have said pretty strong things against Corinne several times. However, for the past two episodes, especially this one, I can’t say I disagree with anything she said.
– Dawn Meehan: I think I felt bad for Dawn the most during this episode. She was clearly the most shaken of the Favorites. We know she’s pretty sensitive, and of all the other contestants she knows Brandon the best (with Cochran) so we can all imagine how hard this ordeal must have been for her.
– Erik Reichenbach: Unfortunately, I’m afraid Erik is destined to be a mere extra this season.
– John Cochran: A few lines ago, I mentioned how Cochran was probably the person closest to Brandon out there, and I wonder why we barely saw him or his reactions during the whole meltdown.
– Malcolm Freberg: Not much either.
– Phillip Sheppard: Not sure what to say about Phillip either. Except maybe that tonight we got the proof that he’s not crazy. I don’t think a crazy person could had have as much self control as he had during the whole incident. However, talking to Brandon the way he did several times (when Brandon came to say sorry for example), he knew he was pushing his buttons, right? Was he manipulating into having a breakdown? Or was it part of Phillip’s lack of awareness (as he can be very aware of certain things, but quite unaware of some others). That being said, he’s impressive in challenges this season, but I still dislike him and don’t find him that entertaining.
Next week:
Well, if this is not a tribe swap, I don’t know what it is. I guess that will make things interesting from a strategy point of view, something this season has lacked so far.
Next person voted out:
With the swap, hard to tell. The promo is advertising a Phillip Vs Corinne showdown, so maybe one of them?
Winner prediction: Cochran is sitting on the top of my list right now. Dawn and Michael not too far behind.
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…