Survivor vote somewhat predictable
Dude, I’m tellin’ ya…………….
Last night’s episode of Survivor didn’t have anything too dramatic or tragic like when a player had to be removed from the game last week. It was more of a basic episode where they at least seperated the reward/immunity challenges into different contests.
The show started with the one tribe “electing” Shambo to take over as leader for the departed dread-locked Russell. Two things regarding this event. First, I realized while watching that I no longer will have to differentiate between the two Russells. Which I’ll miss, actually. I no longer can call the oil man “pot-bellied” Russell. Well, I guess I still can. But I don’t need to. So from now on, it’s just plain old Russell. Unless he pisses me off in some fashion.
The second thing about Shambo’s appointment as leader is that it is just a “puppet” maneuver by the guy alliance. They realized that there were four guys and four women left in the tribe. So they figure they are stroking Shambo’s ego a bit and can still influence her into running the tribe the way they want. We’ll see how long it takes her to acknowledge in her one of her solo ‘asides’ that she knows the men are just trying to manipulate her.
I have to admit though that the tribe continued to do pretty good under her leadership. They won both challenges during the show.
In the reward challenge, the tribe won a fire-making kit and a trip on a sailboat with lunch. Then they were able to send a member over to the other side as a spy—-something the departed leader did to Shambo twice. No one likes to be the one sent as the spy because they miss out on the reward that was just won.
I don’t like this bullshit “spy” thing they’re doing. It is nothing but a penalty to the victors. The producers know obviously that it is a double-edged sword. They portray it as a positive thing like it is part of the cumulative prize of a tribe winning a reward challenge. But it is more of a negative than a positive. Big freakin’ deal…..a person spends a night at the other camp and can see where some of the internal strife is. That’s nothing. Crapola. You better not send me on that lame-ass spy mission when I’m on the show. Just so ya know.
The flip side is that not only does the spy have to miss the sweet reward that typically includes a great meal, they have to spend a whole night in the usually sorry surroundings of a weaker tribe. It’s like living at the Plaza and having to spend a night at Howard Johnsons. And for what? To watch a couple of people snipe at each other and think that will help you significantly down the road.
It doesn’t really play out like that. The people who are a pain-in-the-ass and snipe with their tribemates are the people getting voted out when the same tribe goes on to lose the immunity challenge as well. The spy misses the meal, spends a night in the slum camp, and leaves saying to themselves, “Well, none of them like Player C. She seems to be bitchy and they all mock her. Maybe I can flip her later on.”
But there is no flipping her later because the very next day when that weak tribe loses the immunity challenge, Player C gets voted out of the game that evening. The spy’s mission is a complete waste of time.
And the negative reaction of the people who get chosen says it all. They always feel picked on or disliked by the leader who sent them. Like Laura (who was selected) and some other girl who spoke negatively about Shambo’s decision in an ‘aside’.
She said, “Shambo is like the girl who grew up in the trailer park and married a rich guy. She’s treating everyone like trash and I don’t know if she has a strategy or not for sending Laura over to the other camp. Laura is one of our strongest females.”
In giving her decision in front of everyone, Shambo clearly said that she “needs her 4 guys well-fed and ready for tomorrow’s immunity challenge“. And she also said that she has been there twice herself and wasn’t going this time. Sounds fair enough to me. But I saw her strategy run even deeper than that. Shambo had just sat out that challenge and MUST participate in the immunity challenge the next day. So she should be well-fed and stong too. Additionally, Laura had just participated in the reward challenge and therefore could sit out the immunity challenge. After all, she’ll be so weak and tired after playing the spy game all night. So there was a numbers strategy behind it too that wasn’t clearly identified. Good for Shambo.
And it worked like a charm. There was a lot of labor to be done getting the boat out to the sunken puzzle pieces in the immunity challenge. And in the end, Shambo’s team won again.
The show tried to make out like a tired Jaison was in deep trouble and a good threat to be voted off. But that was just the usual see-thru approach the producers use to make you think there are two equal candidates who might go. The truth is that Liz was still only in the game thanks to the injury departure last week. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been on this episode. So she was going the whole time. And she sealed her fate 100% when she griped about a tribemate chirping with the spy while there was work to be done. Russell told her it was good to make nice-nice with someone from the other side because obviously when the merge happens, they are short on numbers.
So Liz was cooked. As Richard Pryor once said, “somebody get some cole slaw and serve this shit up”.
Two last thoughts: where the hell did this Natalie come from? Jesus Christ. It’s almost getting ridiculous. They’re in the bush for almost 3 weeks now in torrential rainstorms with allegedly no luxuries. And this chick looks incredible—-at least from the neck down. She’s beginning to compete with my girl Monica as Best Eye Candy.
And second: If these people have no creature comforts or luxuries, how do none of the girls have underarm hair? They still look like they’re ready for a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated. Remember when Susan Hawk and the other girls all had a jungle under their arms on season 1? Reminded me of a Grateful Dead show. But these girls on recent seasons get help staying photogenic. They gotta be.