One World – Episode 6: Thanks for the Souvenir

I should be happy, I should be overjoyed, Colton is out and it was painful. The problem is that the first half of this episode was almost as painful to watch as it is to have an appendicitis (I got my appendix removed too, so Kat, if you read this, I can explain if you want). There has been a lot of evil characters on Survivor, most of them we love to hate. But evil people. It’s different. And gosh, Colton and Alicia are indeed two horrible human beings. We got rid of one this week, and while it made me happy (yes, this is how bad Colton is, I’m never never happy when somebody has to be medivac, for the simple reason that I feel for them… well, Colton can suffer all he wants, i won’t care… does this make me a bad person?).

Yet, Colton’s departure frustrated me too. This is not the way he was supposed to go. He was supposed to go blindsided and bitchslapped, with three idols in his pockets, and just before entering the jury. Well, I guess the next person voted out will be in the jury, and he left with one idol in his pocket, so almost there. And we can be pretty sure he will be in the next All-Stars season, and I can’t wait to see him getting humiliated by the real All-Stars that this game has.

In any case, good riddance, at least, now this season will be more pleasant to watch.

Also, I cannot not talk about the surprise merge. It’s the first time they merge at 12, right? (I need to have my memory refreshed here)

While some people may wonder why have the tribes switching for just two episodes, I liked it. The merge at 12 makes things interesting, especially because of the One World twist (they all know each other) and the tribal switch (original tribe allegiance may have been changed and we hopefully will avoid a pagonging this season). So this week, on top of my usual thoughts, I’ll speculate a little about some contestants prospects now that they have merged.

Salani

– Chelsea Meissner: Not much about her right now, but she’s sitting pretty where she is, and her story has yet to be completely told. She still looks good in terms of prospects for the final three. (yes, I know, I inserted two -not so- hidden references to Chelsea’s appearance in the two previous sentences, I’m shallow like that sometimes).

– Jay Byars: Not much about Jay today. The next couple of weeks will be interesting, as him being targeted or not will show how solid the Troyzan, Jay, Chelsea and Kim alliance is.

– Kat Edorsson: Kat’s stupidity annoyed me early in the season, but now she’s an interesting comic relief. I just hope she’s not getting the Fabio edit, her winning (it could happen, if everyone starts betraying and hating everyone else) would be worse than many other things.

– Kim Spradlin: Almost nothing about her this week, but last week we had plenty to chew on, and now that the merge has happened we’ll see what she’s really made of. I believe she can easily be the one who decides who goes home next week.

– Michael Jefferson: He seemed almost likable today for some reason. He’d better be, he’s in a lot of trouble right now. No real ally, he’ll be targeted by many people because he can win his share of individual immunities. I suspect that he’ll be out within two weeks.

– Sabrina Thompson: The merge couldn’t come at a better time for her. She didn’t know it, but she was in a delicate position with Kim and Chelsea having a second alliance with Troyzan and Jay. Now, she has time to adapt to the new balance of power that will emerge next week, and I don’t think she’ll be targeted just yet. She is in a delicate situation though. If Kim and Chelsea betray her, she’ll pretty will be alone, although she has the resources to find new allies, but she will face a uphill battle until the end. She she’s not betrayed, her path to the final five seems easy.

– Troy “Troyzan” Robertson: Troy is in a great spot with the merge happening now. He has Jay, Chelsea and Kim on one side, and I’m sure there is still something left of his alliance with Jonas, Tarzan and Leif, if only enough to manipulate them. He’s sitting pretty too right now. He’s gotta be careful not to get overconfident. If he doesn’t make any mistake, the final five is open for him two.

Manono

– Alicia Rosa: She’s so despicable it makes me sick. I shouldn’t care, but knowing she’s a teacher makes me sad. I never ever want to wish anybody to lose their job, but I care for those kids that are in her hands too. In terms of the game, she thinks she’s playing it, but she’s fooling only herself. And now that she has betrayed Monica, she’s without Colton, and the female power trio (Sabrina, Chelsea and Kim) doesn’t need her anymore for numbers, she’ll be history soon. One could think that a useless competitor like her could stay longer because she’s not a threat, but everyone will hate her soon enough to get rid of her as soon as possible, especially because nobody will need her. I can’t wait for that day. Yes, this is some sort of sick transfer. I won’t be able to see Colton be humiliated, so the next best thing is to see her in that situation.

– Colton Cumbie medivaced: I think I have seen every single episode of Survivor (I may have missed one in Marquesas and one in Guatemala), and never before today I almost fast forwarded to the end because it was literally painful to watch. I’m talking about Colton and Alicia being horrible jerks to Christina. Once again, it’s one thing to be manipulative and to be a “villain” It’s another one to just be a mean human being and a bully. Apart from that I’m so glad we’re rid of Colton, I’m sure he’ll be back another season, and I hope he goes out among the first and he cries.

– Christina Cha: Christina is definitely a better human being than I am. While I always try to be a good person, there are limits to that philosophy. The limit is people like Colton and Alicia. But Christina managed to suck it up and to be the better person. I called her stupid when I saw her comforting Colton, but in retrospect she did the right thing. He won’t learn the lesson, Alicia didn’t even see there was a lesson to be learned, but it doesn’t matter. Christina showed who was the better person there, and that’s all that matters.

– Greg “Tarzan” Smith: Today’s conversation between Tarzan and Leif seemed like a preview for something, and seeing the preview about next week, it could be about Tarzan going “crazy” (I’m being informed that this storyline has been started since the beginning of the season). Tarzan could actually go far, expect for one thing, while he seems to suck at strategy he also seems to be pretty stubborn when he gets an idea (or a voting intention), that could be his demise.

– Jonas Otsuji: While I lost a lot of respect for Jonas last week, if he actually start growing some now that he can’t hide behind Colton anymore, maybe he’ll go back up in my rankings. We’ll see.

– Leif Manson: Leif is too nice (I also started with this last week). He also can’t play much. He’ll stick around as long as his vote his needed by some people and then he’ll be voted out, and we won’t know anything more about him. He may have a few lines… One boring confessional or two… But that’ll be pretty much it.

Next Time on Survivor:

Will the men stick together? Will the women? I don’t think so. I think we may see some pretty interesting (and even surprising?) new dynamics and alliances appearing. Good. Enough with pagongings.

Hopefully the preview showing Tarzan going ballistic on Jonas is a sign of that.

Who’s next to go?

Alicia is in trouble, although she may survive a few more weeks. Mike is in trouble too.

Who’s gonna win?

Kim, Chelsea and Troyzan stay in the top three spots (that doesn’t mean I think they will be the final three, just that one of them has the most chances to win at this point). Jay, Sabrina and Jonas are still behind. Anyone else has zero chance to win unless they pull a Fabio.

Before you go anywhere else:

– Tell me what you thought of this episode in the comments.

– Go check out those very fine sites and blogs made by real fans:

• Super Jude’s thoughts. He always sees what I forget to mention.
• Jeff Pitman’s True Dork Times, always funny and full of great insights.
• The Midside and his great analyses from a storytelling perspective.
• Stephen Fishbach‘s blog.
• Andy Dehnart at Reality Blurred.
• More will come