Thursday, March 17

Kicked When Down

Well, wasn't Survivor: Pulau something last night?  What a turn of events, followed by another turn of events.
I am under the impression that, by law, reality show games such as Survivor are supposed to be pre-planned, from start to finish, before the contest starts, so that charges of impropriety and favouritism are more difficult to press.  Last night's change from the ordinary made me wonder whether that was planned before the game started, or whether it was a made-up-on-the-spot effort to get force the Unbeatable Team to lose a member.
Whatever the answer, it made for one of the better episodes of Survivor that I'd seen.  The Reward Challenge was for the reward of food, but, it was revealed, the winning tribe of the challenge would, as would the losing tribe, have to vote out one of its members.  What!!!???!!!  How is that fair?  What is the justification for that?  Excellent!!!  But that wasn't the only surprise.  The members of the winning tribe, after voting out their member (good riddance, Willard, boring Willard), were then told that they were to each vote to give immunity to one of the members of the losing tribe.  What???!!!???  A second surprise??  Excellent!!!  This of course resulted in the guy, Ibrahim, who was 100% destined to leave getting immunity.  Who would they vote out now?  How would they be able to confer?



And what a humiliating and tough day for the losing tribe (is it Ulong?).  Not only do they lose a challenge that they had come close to winning, but they must suffer the indignity of having the other tribe witness their tribal council, and the even worse indignity of seeing the other team eat delicious bowls of beef stew while they sit, stewing in their own patheticness.  Then the final kick is that the satiated winning team gets to screw up their plan of voting out Ibrahim.  Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick.  Frazier Goes Down!!!  Frazier Goes Down!!!
In the end, the Pathetic Tribe votes out the much-tattooed- and-therefore-much-more-ugly- because-of-the-tattoos Angie.  Apparently because she didn't like being lost in the jungle during a lightning storm???   I guess the fact that she was one of the strongest and most consistent challenge performers on the team wasn't relevant anymore.  Probably because the members of the team has likely given up the concept of "tribe" by now and are thinking about how they each can manage to survive whenever a merging of tribes takes place.  Their weak will now eat their strong.



Anyway, a good season of Survivor got even better last night.  Way to take everyone out of the usual discomfort zone.



4 comments:

dylan said...

Well looks like they are doing some good stuff on this survivor. I'll have to start giving it a watch. On a related note I've always been a huge Amazing Race fan and the addition of Rob my all time favourite survivor (barely edging out Rupert), has been astounding. Rob is a delight to watch as he skirts the edges of the rules and frustrates the other contestants.

Rob said...

What I enjoy about Rob (and Amber) is the joy that they have for the playing of the game. They delight so much in trickery, deception and manipulation, and, best of all, they let us (the audience) tag along in it all, by being so open (to the camera) about what they do.
I really despised Rob for the first half of the first season he was on Survivor. About half way through, I realised his abilities to play the game and turned into a fan.
I hope they go far in TAR.

Nils said...

I loved the twists last night on Survivor, except that I'd have been happier if they'd each been able to make some sort of statement before the final vote - sort of making your own case for usefulness. I was astounded when buddy the redneck wasn't summarily bounced ... he was one of my early picks to go because of his grating accent and annoying personality. But ... perhaps there's a lot we don't see.
As for Amber and Rob ... they are a delight to watch. I love how he's always thinking one or two steps ahead. And I love how they seem to be enjoying the game, the scenery ... and one another. They are a powerhouse team, and the real proof of that is how focused the other teams are on Ramber, often to the detriment of their own game.

graham said...

It'll suck when they get split, but I guess if one of them wins they'll share the reward.
Bye Willard, I'm pretty grouchy, but I still wouldn't be able to handle you.