Survivor 37.5 “Jackets and Eggs”

So, last night, the Jabeni Tribe went to tribal council for the first time and, by a vote of 3-2, Natalie was voted out over Lyrsa.  In the end, Mike decided to join with Nick and Lyrsa and he voted out his fellow Goliath tribe member,

And really, it’s not a shock.  It’s always a risk to blindside a member of your own tribe but I’ve got the feeling that no one is going to hold it against Mike.  From the minute this game began, Natalie has been getting on everyone’s nerves and the fact that she made it this far was more due to luck than any strong game play on her part.  With each season, Survivor becomes more and more of a social game and Natalie’s toxic personality managed to get on everyone’s nerves from day one.

It wasn’t a shock to see Natalie get voted out but it was still a lively tribal council.  It all came down to jackets.  Angelina really wants someone to giver her a jacket and she told Natalie that she wanted to vote out Lyrsa just so she could get her hands on Lyrsa’s jacket.  Natalie then got the bright idea to attempt to blackmail Nick into giving Angelina his jacket.  Natalie asked him if he was willing to give up a chance to win a million dollars just so he could keep his jacket.

Considering that Nick and Mike have a side alliance going in the Jabeni Tribe, that was a dumb move.  With Mike already wanting to get rid of Natalie, he was more than willing to join with Nick and Lyrsa and blindside her.  As Natalie left, Angelina was reduced to begging Natalie for her jacket.  Natalie, however, decided to keep the jacket for herself.  So, I guess Angelina will have to be cold for a little while longer.

As for the other tribes, Christian’s charm offensive has worked wonders and he is now a fully accepted member of the Tevi Tribe.  Gabby, however, still feels like an outsider and would probably have been in trouble if Tevi had gone to tribal last night.  During the immunity challenge, Dan managed to find another idol so he now has two immunity idols.

Meanwhile, on the Vuku Tribe, Kara is desperately trying to bond with the other tribe members but none of them seem to trust her.

There weren’t many surprises in last night’s episode but it was still a fun tribal council and at least Natalie finally got voted out.  (I was worried that someone would drag her to the end because they figured no one would vote for her to win.)  It’s just occurred to me that, for two weeks in a row, we’ve had tribal councils where the outnumbered Davids managed to blindside a Goliath!  So, let’s give credit to Survivor for managing to stay on theme!

Next week, it looks like Alison is going to try to make a big move and try to form an alliance with Gabby.  I’m not sure how that will work out.  I can imagine Gabby running off and telling Christian and then Christian telling Dan and then Alison getting voted out at the next tribal council.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

P.S. For those keeping track: Dan has two idols.  Davie has one.  Carl has a special power that he can use to cancel one of the idols.

Survivor 37.4 “Time to Bring About The Charmpocalypse”

Last night’s episode of Survivor was kind of strange.

The episode started out with Bi (of the David Tribe) announcing that she was leaving the game because she had sprained her MCL and, as a professional athlete, she couldn’t risk aggravating the injury.  I can see her point, though I have to wonder if she would still left if she wasn’t sitting at the bottom of the totem pole on the David Tribe.  (Bi was a part of the alliance that got blind-sided at the end of the second episode and she seemed to be especially upset about it.)

Bi, the fourth person to leave Survivor 37

Anyway, with Bi leaving, this led to Survivor basically skipping whatever it was that they had planned for the next immunity challenge and they went straight to the traditional tribal shakeup.  Tribal shakeups can be fun but, because of Bi leaving, it happened way too early this season.  I still feel like I’m getting to know these people and suddenly, everyone’s on a new tribe.  It definitely gave last night’s episode something of a chaotic feel.  I was struggling so much to keep track of who went where that I almost missed who won immunity.

There’s three tribes now.  I’m not really a huge fan of the three tribe thing, just because tribal dynamics are usually more interesting when there’s a large group of people instead of just five.  With 16 players and 3 tribes of five, that meant that one castaway was left out.  Carl was sent to Exile Island and told that he would join whichever tribe got sent to the next tribal council.

That actually worked out well for Carl because, on Exile Island, he found a pretty neat little advantage.  He now has the power to nullify someone’s immunity idol.  The catch is that, when he uses the nullifier, he has to do so while he’s voting and he has to say who he’s nullifying.  Right now, Davie and Dan have idols but Carl doesn’t know that.  So, if Carl uses his nullifier, he not only has to use it on the right night but he also has to use it for the right person or this potentially huge power will be totally useless.

As for the new three tribes they are:

Vuku Tribe

Natalia (Former Goliath)

Kara (Former Goliath)

Alec (Former Goliath)

Elizabeth (Former David)

Davie (Former David)

Jabeni Tribe

Natalie (Former Goliath)

Angelina (Former Goliath)

Mike (Former Goliath)

Lyrsa (Former David)

Nick (Former David)

Tiva Tribe

John (Former Goliath)

Alison (Former Goliath)

Dan (Former Goliath)

Christian (Former David)

Gabby (Former David)

On the new Jabeni Tribe, Natalie annoyed her new tribemates while Nick — no longer on the same tribe as his former ally Christian — attempted to form a new “Rock Stars” alliance with Mike White.

Meanwhile, on the new Tiva Tribe, Christian and Gabby are fortunately still together.  Gabby is feeling very insecure about fitting in with her new tribe and is scared that she’s going to be sent home.  Fortunately, Christian was there for her.

Finally, on the Jabeni Tribe, it looked like either Elizabeth or Davie were pretty much doomed when the Jabeni Tribe lost immunity.  However, Alec decided to betray his former Goliath tribe mates and he joined with Elizabeth and Davie to vote out Natalia.  Natalia was beyond angry and yelled at Alec for smiling after she was voted out.  It was actually a pretty fun tribal council, as we watched Natalia go from being arrogant and cocky to realizing that she had just been blindsided.

With Natalia gone, Carl joined the Jabeni Tribe, which now means that the Jabeni Tribe is the only tribe to have a majority of former Davids.

Next week: More paranoia and another storm!

Lisa Marie

Natalia, the fifth person to leave Survivor 37

Survivor 37.3 “I Am Goliath Strong”

Well, Jeremy certainly managed to screw that up!

I mean, really Jeremy should have been in a great position last night.  Yes, Goliath was going to tribal for the first time.  And yes, somebody would have to be voted out.  However, Natalie was the obvious target.  She has no social skills.  She’s terrible in challenges.  She does little around camp other than glare at people and try to give orders.  Natalie was such an obvious choice that it was pretty easy to guess that she wouldn’t be going home last night.

Instead, it was Jeremy.  Yes, the same Jeremy who was always good at challenges and who always seemed to be working hard around camp.  It’s not so much that Jeremy was blind-sided as the fact that the entire tribe voted to kick him off the island.  Goliath may have lost the immunity challenge but, for the most part, they were united at tribal council.  Natalie got Jeremy’s vote.  Everyone else voted for Jeremy.

Jeremy’s downfall was that he not only allowed himself to get paranoid but he also let everyone else know that he was paranoid.  Survivor‘s a tricky game.  On the one hand, you have to be paranoid to win.  On the other hand, if you’re too paranoid (especially during the pre-merge part of the game), chances are that your tribe will vote you out just because they’re sick of you and all of your drama.  I think that’s what happened to Jeremy.  The Goliath Tribe said, “We can either keep Natalie, who is annoying but at least doesn’t talk to anyone or we can keep Jeremy, who calls tribal meetings and won’t stop telling everyone what to do.”  In the end, the tribe decided that they were strong enough that they could afford to lose Jeremy and they’re probably right.

As for the David Tribe, they may have won immunity but they’re still a group that doesn’t seem to have really come together.  Gabby appears to have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and it looks like Christian may have to eventually choose whether he wants to be allied with Gabby or allied with Nick.  As well, Bi — the strongest physical player on the tribe — injured her knee last night so her days on the beach could be numbered.

So, the lesson of last night’s Survivor was to know when to keep quiet.  If Jeremy had kept quiet and resisted the temptation to have that tribal meeting, he probably could have gotten rid of Natalie.  Instead, he became the third person to leave Survivor: David vs. Goliath.

Lisa Marie 

Jeremy Crawford, the third person to leave Survivor David vs Goliath

Survivor 37.2 “The Chicken Has Flown The Coop”

Well, on last night’s episode of Survivor, we finally made it to tribal council!

Despite the terrible weather and a strenuous immunity challenge, nobody had to be medically evacuated last night.  That’s a good thing.  Unfortunately, the David Tribe lost their second immunity challenge in a row and they’re now down two people.  I really hope this entire season won’t just be the Goliath Tribe decimating the David Tribe.  I mean, the whole point of the David vs. Goliath story is that David may have been smaller and weaker but he still won the battle because he had faith.

However, as of right now, the Goliath Tribe appears to be practically unstoppable.  Not only do they have the strongest physical players but they’re also more focused and united than the David Tribe.  The Goliath Tribe works well together.  Oh sure, everyone’s sick of Natalie and her attitude.  And a lot of people on the tribe are paranoid about Dan and the possibility that he has an idol.  But so far, the Goliath Tribe is working well together and it really does seem like they might be unstoppable.

Meanwhile, over on the David Tribe, they still haven’t recovered from the shock of losing Pat.  No new leader has emerged and, as we saw during last night’s immunity defeat, they have no idea how to work together as a team.

When the David Tribe lost immunity, Carl seemed pretty confident that everyone would agree to vote out Lyrsa.  In fact, he was so confident that I immediately guessed that there was no way that Lyrsa would be voted out.  Instead, Elizabeth rallied enough tribe members together to get rid of Jessica.

Why Jessica?  I’m not sure.  Physically, she seemed like more of an asset than Lyrsa but I don’t think she had really bothered to bond with anyone else in the tribe.  She also had one the worst cases of resting bitch face that I’ve ever seen on Survivor and, especially early in the game, being unlikable is never a good strategy.

(Jessica, incidentally, was the youngest castaway this season.  She was 19, which means that this won’t be the season that a teenager wins Survivor.)

Since it’s early in the game, it’s still a bit difficult to keep track of who is who and who is working with who.  Here’s how last night’s vote broke down:

Voting for Lyrsa: Bi, Carl, Davie, and Jessica

Voting for Jessica: Christian, Elizabeth, Gabby, Lyrsa, and Nick

Right now, those who voted for Jessica are at the top of David Tribe while those who voted for Lyrsa are at the bottom.  Both Bi and Carl appear to have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

In other news: Nick and Christian have formed a side alliance, the Mason-Dixon Alliance.  Nick was really excited about coming up with a name for his alliance, which leads me to suspect that Nick would be a better fit for Big Brother than Survivor.

Davie found a second immunity idol!  So, now, Davie and Dan have the two immunity idols.  There may or may not be more idols out there.

And that’s it for now!

Lisa Marie

Jessica Peet has her flame snuffed as she becomes the 1st person vote out of Survivor 37.