Survivor 38.6 “There’s Always A Twist”

This is going to be a one weird season.

So, last night’s episode started with the three tribes merging into one big tribe, which was subsequently named the Vata Tribe.  The new members of the tribe were:

Victoria (former Kama)

Julia (former Kama)

Ron Clark (Former Kama)

Eric (former Kama)

Aurora (former Kama)

Juiie (former Kama)

Gavin (former Kama)

Joe (Former Kama)

Wardog (former Manu)

Lauren (Former Manu)

Kelly (Fomer Manu)

David (Former Manu)

Now, just looking at the numbers — 8 former Kama and 4 former Manu — it looked like things would be straight forward.  The former Kama people would stick together and pick the former Manus one-by-one.  However, before anyone could start strategizing, Jeff announced that there was a twist.

Reem, Keith, Wendy, Chris, Rick Devens, and Aubry marched in.  Jeff announced that the six of them had been living on Edge of Extinction Beach and that they would be now be competing for a chance to reenter the game.  The new members of the Vata Tribe all looked just a little bit panicked.  It was quite a contrast to Big Brother, where everyone always pretends to be excited about people reentering the game.

Anyway, the competition to get back into the game involved running a small obstacle course, untying some knots. and then dropping a ball through a hole.  At first, it looked like Wendy was going to win but then she lost her ball.  Then it looked like Aubry was going to win but again, she lost her ball.  It never looked like Reem or Keith were going to win.  In the end, it was Rick Devens who won!

With Rick joining them, the Vata Tribe returned to their beach.

With Vata gone, Jeff turned to Aubry, Keith, Reem, Wendy, and Chris and proceeded to reveal the true extent of this season’s twist.  All five of them would be returning to Edge of Extinction Beach, where they would be joined by the next few people voted out and, once again, they would be given a chance to compete to reenter the game.

When they returned to the beach, Keith and Wendy raised the white flag and voluntarily left the game.  I wasn’t really surprised to see either of them go.  Wendy always seemed to be out there more for the experience than because of any real desire to win the game.  And Keith …. well, Keith is kind of a wimp.

That left Reem, Aubry, and Chris on Edge of Extinction Beach.  Interestingly enough, Reem, Aubry, and Chris are also apparently going to be on the jury (assuming that none of them win the chance to reenter the game).  At last night’s tribal council, they were brought in to observe the deliberations.

The first individual immunity was won by Julie.  The show’s editors did a good job of making it appear as if either Rick or Wentworth would be voted out.  Wentworth wanted either Rick or David gone.  David and Rick both wanted Wentworth gone.  (As a returnee, Rick received a secret two-part immunity idol, with the catch that he had to share one piece with another survivor and that the idol wouldn’t be good until after that night’s tribal council.  RIck gave the other half to David.  Big shock.)  However, it quickly became clear that the former members of Kama didn’t particularly care who the former members of Manu wanted to vote out.  Under the direction of Ron Clark, they voted out Joe.

It really wasn’t a surprise.  Ron has always viewed Joe as being a huge threat and, since the game began, he’s been talking about targeting Joe right after the merge.  For his part, Joe spent most of the day painting and not making any deals with anyone.  I love Joe but he’s always struggled when it comes to thinking strategically.

The final vote came down as follows:

David and Rick voted for Wentworth.

Aurora and Joe both signed onto Wentworth’s plan and voted for RIck.

Wentworth, Lauren, and Wardog (of course) all voted for David.

Eric, Gavin, Julie, Julia, Victoria, and Ron all voted for Joe.

So, by a 6-3-2-2- vote, Joe left tribal council and promptly headed to Edge of Extinction Beach, where he’ll get a chance to reenter the game.

It looks like, next week, someone might be medically evacuated from the game.  Or maybe the Survivor editors are just toying with us.  As always, we’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

P.S. For at least half of the former Kama tribe members, last night was their first tribal council!  One unfortunate thing about Kama dominating the early part of the game is that I still don’t feel like I know much about them.  They seem to all be following Ron Clark’s lead right now.

Survivor 38.5 “It’s Like The Worst Cocktail Party Ever”

What did we learn from last night’s two-hour episode of Survivor?

First off, we learned that the key to winning immunity is having Joe on your tribe.  We’re five episodes into this season of Survivor and Joe has yet to go to tribal council.  Last night, the Kama Tribe won immunity twice and it was pretty much all due to Joe.  While his tribemates are concerned that Joe might be too strong a player and they often talk about blindsiding him, they also know that he’s the only reason they’re not going to tribal.  I mean, there’s a reason why Kama is so strong and it’s not Ron Clark.

Secondly, we discovered that Aubry is still terrible at reading people.  This is third time that Aubry has played Survivor and, in every season, her downfall has been due to her inability to connect with other people.  Everyone seems to like Aubry but, whenever she tries to make a deal or play a social game, her natural awkwardness is her downfall.

This season, Aubry tried to make a big move early.  During the first hour of last night’s episode, the Lesu Tribe lost their first immunity challenge.  Aubry immediately decided that this would be a good time to form a Girl’s Alliance with Victoria and Wendy and take out one of the guys.  Aubry’s plan never made sense to me.  It’s way too early in the game to start betraying your alliance and Wendy was the obvious person to vote out.  My personal theory is that finding that immunity idol kind of went to Aubry’s head.  It also didn’t help that the folks at Edge of Extinction Beach decided to send Aubry an extra advantage.  Thanks to them, Aubry received an extra vote and became even more convinced of her own invulnerability.

Feeling totally confident in her ability to control the game, Aubry tried to convince Wendy and Victoria to join with her.  When Wendy kinda dithered about (as she usually does), Aubry changed her mind and decided to vote out Wendy.  However, by this point, it was too late.  Victoria has wanted Aubry gone since the game began and she, Wendy, Eric, and Gavin teamed up to blindside her.

Aubry went to Edge of Extinction Beach, which she later described as being the most “dysfunctional family” that she’s ever been a part of.  On Edge of Extinction Beach, Reem is still bitter about getting voted out, Keith is still babbling about redemption, Chris is still something of a blank, and Rick and Aubry are simply trying to keep out of the way.  When Chris and Keith both found clues that would help them out in the upcoming challenge to see who would reenter the game, Reem started screaming about how unfairly she’s been treated.  What game does Reem think that she’s playing?  This is Survivor, Reem.  No one owes you anything.

The other big lesson that we learned last week is that Wendy is always cheerful.  She finally got voted out at the end of last night’s episode and she giggled through the entire experience.  From what I’ve seen on twitter, people seem to be divided as to whether Wendy is adorkable or just annoying as Hell.  I tend to fall in the latter camp.

The tribal council was an interesting one, just because both Lesu and Manu lost immunity but there was only one tribal council.  Both tribes went to council at the same time.  With the first vote, both tribes stuck together.  All four members of Manu voted for Lauren while all four members of Lesu voted for Wendy.  When it went to a revote, everyone decided to avoid drawing rocks by voting for Wendy.  And so, Wendy ended up going to Extinction Beach.

In other big news, Kelley found an immunity idol so now, both she and Lauren have one.  Here’s a question:  When Aubry was voted out, did she get to take her immunity idol and her extra vote with her?  If she reenters the game, will she still have those advantages?  And if she doesn’t, will the idol be hidden again?  I’m no sure what the answer is to any of that.  Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.

Next week, it looks like we might have a merge.  Judging from the previews, the secret of Edge of Extinction Beach will finally be revealed to the other castaways.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 33.4 “I Need A Dance Partner”

Tonight, we had the most anti-climatic tribal swap in Survivor history.  At the start of the show, the two tribes were divided into three tribes of five.  Everyone randomly picked colors.  Amazingly, the new Kama Tribe was made up of five members of the old Kama Tribe.  The new Lesu Tribe was made up of five members of the old Manu Tribe.  And the new Manu Tribe was made up for four former members of the old Kama Tribe, along with Wendy.

So, our new tribes pretty much look just like our old tribes:

Lesu

Rick

Wardog

David

Lauren

Kelley Wentworth

Manu

Wendy

Aubry

Victoria

Gavin

Eric

Kama

Joe

Julie Rosenberg

Aurora

Ron

Julia Carter

After the tribal swap, it occurred to me that I’m over a lot of the people on the show.  For instance, I’m definitely over Wendy.  I liked her when this season began but no, I’m definitely over her now.  I get that Wendy likes the chickens but stealing the flint was stupid.  Releasing the chickens in the middle of the night was stupid.  Whatever sympathy I had for Wendy pretty much vanished as soon she started jumping up and down.  My fear is that Wendy is going to sneak into the top three, if just because everyone will assume she’s so unlikable that there’s no way she’ll win.

I want to like Ron Clark but he seems to be getting awfully full of himself.  Ordering Victoria to search Joe’s stuff and then gloating about it was just not a good look for him.

Kelly Wentworth is one that I was over before this season even began.  Has there ever been a more overrated Survivor player?

I’m definitely over both Keith and Reem.  Perhaps the only thing worse than being stuck with Wendy on Manu would be being stuck on Edge of Extinction Beach, listening to Reem and Keith whine about how they weren’t treated fairly.

Despite the fact that we now have three tribes, the immunity challenge was more of the same.  The two tribes made up of former Kama members ended up winning immunity.  The members of Lesu ended up going to tribal council for the fourth time in a row!  The only difference is that, for the first time since the game began, Wendy didn’t have to go with them.

As a fan of the Rick/David alliance, I was disappointed by what happened at tribal council.  While Lauren, who is ill and depressed, was the obvious choice, it was Rick who ended up getting voted out by a vote of 3-2.  In the end, Wardog decided to vote the way that Wentworth wanted him to vote.  Wardog always votes the way that Wentworth wants him too.  If Lesu doesn’t win immunity next week, David’s in trouble.

(Rick, to his credit, handled being voted out well.  He certainly showed a lot more class than Reem, Keith, or Chris did.)

Of course, technically, no one’s been voted out.  Everyone’s just headed over to Extinction Beach.  Rick chose to stay in the game.  As soon as he arrived at the beach, Reem announced, “You’re not in good standing here!”

Seriously, Reem — SHUT UP!

Anyway,, we’ll see what happens next week.  With the new Kama tribe apparently unstoppable (largely thanks to Joe), it seems probable that either Wendy or David is going to be in trouble.

Lisa Marie

Survivor 38.3 “Betrayals Are Going To Get Exposed”

Hi y’all.

So, last night’s episode was kind of weird.  Manu continued their immunity losing streak and went to tribal again.  And really, it seemed like Wendy was one of the most obvious targets in Survivor history.  First off, she has a severely injured ankle.  Secondly, she’s been driving everyone at camp crazy with her sudden declaration that she’s a vegetarian and, as a result, no one has the right to eat the chicken that the team won at the reward challenge.  And then, in order to keep the chicken safe, she stole the tribe’s flint.  And while stealing the flint meant that the tribe couldn’t light a fire to cook the chicken, it also meant that the tribe won’t be able to light a fire to stay warm during the night.

I mean, I actually like Wendy.  But I totally would have voted her out for stealing the flint.  That’s just selfish on her part.

Instead, at tribal council, Chris somehow got voted out.  Chris, who is largely harmless, was voted out because he made the mistake of approaching Wardog a few too many times and saying that he wanted to vote out Kelley.  This led to Wardog deciding that Chris was some sort of huge threat who was playing too hard and couldn’t be trusted and so, the target shifted from Kelley to Chris.  Even David and Rick, who were the ones who actually wanted Kelley out in the first place, ended up voting for Chris in order to stay good with Wardog and the rest of the tribe.

And so, the totally harmless Chris was voted out by a vote of 5-2.  (Chris and Wendy voted for Kelley.)  Meanwhile, Kelley — who actually is a huge threat — is still in the game.  And Wendy — who giggled about stealing the flint — is still in the game.

Of course, Chris really isn’t out of the game.  No one’s actually out of the game yet.  As he left tribal council, Chris came across the sign that, last week, so vexed Keith.  Unlike Keith, Chris immediately decided to go to Edge of Extinction beach and wait for his chance to reenter the game.  There, he joined Reem and Keith.  (Despite all of his indecision last week, Keith eventually decided to stay in the game.)

Personally, I think that the whole walking-to-the-sign-and-making-a-decision thing is staged.  I imagine that, after Reem, Keith, and Eric were voted out, someone with production explained the twist and asked them if they wanted to stay in the game or leave.  They then probably filmed them walking down the path and seeing the sign and I imagine that production told the castaways to really play up their reaction.  Last week, Keith really went overboard with his indecision.  Last night, Eric didn’t seem surprised enough.

Meanwhile, over on Kama Beach,, Aubrey finally found an immunity idol so I guess she’s going to be around for a while.  Because they keep winning, we haven’t really gotten a chance to know the Kama Tribe.  Just the fact that Victoria and Ron had a discussion about sending Joe home without realizing that Joe was directly behind him leads me to suspect that the Kama Tribe may not be the smartest.

Next week, it looks like there’s going to be a tribal shuffle.  We’re going from two tribes to three!  Personally, I’m not  huge fan of three tribes but I guess they had to do something before the Manu Tribe dwindled down to nothing.

We’ll see what happens next week,

Lisa Marie