LAST EDITED ON 03-27-20 AT 06:02 PM (EST)Since we don't have much to chew on in the sports world, let's munch on thiese Power Rankings... but first, (in a Julie Chen voice!) a look at the story:
Last week, we wrote: “Just like Tyson and Rob right before them, Sandra and Parvati had each received production’s help to win the game so... it was time for payback. Tony, Jeremy, Yul and Ben also fall in the category of “Fixed Outcomes” so they’re in danger.” Yul certainly was! What I didn’t mention was Probst’s constant refrain that the game has evolved. While a serious analysis would show that the only “evolution” has been the addition of gimmicks and twists, Probst is using this season to prove his point. I’d say it’s easy to prove your point when you are in control of the key variables. Whether or not these votes were scripted, the key variable in Survivor has always been the numbers. Hatch proved in season 1 that 4 united players can be deadly in a group where the 6 others think everyone is playing as individuals. Here, we had 8 players from the first 20 seasons going against 12 players from the second half of the series. Add the fact that many of the older players had become “Legends” of the game then we knew the old-timers didn’t stand a chance.
During the episode, I noted that, for one of the rare occasions, Probst didn’t use the formulaic “Yara getting their first look at the new Dakal and Sele Tribes; Parvati and Sandra voted out.” In fact, Yara wasn’t even the first tribe to enter the arena; they walked in between Sele and Dakal. That's because there was a Reward Challege that wasn't shown; Yara had already seen the new tribes. So, once more Probst wasted time on Sophie pretending to hang on to the idol when TWO HUGE characters had been eliminated. The editors could have spliced in comments from the reward challenge into the conversation before the Immunity challenge but they didn't bother. I think that's a clear indication that Parvati doesn't return to the game.
Another interesting thing about the edit is that we get a count on how many Fire Tokens some players have but nothing on others. Is that a clue that some players will use their tokens successfully? We’d need a statement of their current account if they are going to use them while we wouldn’t need the information for the players who simply waste them.
The CharactersA reshuffle of the contenders is in order after this episode. I'll ignore, for the time being, those on the Edge of Extinction (When we find out who comes back then and only then will we look back at his or her portrayal on EoE to see where they rank. I will say though that, for a portly fellow, Rob did very well, finding 3 Fire Tokens to the one found by the “amazing” Tyson):
Wendell: While Michelle has been spending most of her interviews telling us that Wendell is a bad person, Yul spent most of this episode telling the viewers that Wendell is a bad player so it stands to reason that is how the editors want us to view him. What we heard from him had no redeeming quality as he threatened to bite Michelle for trying to put him on a leash when all she did was say he created chaos at Tribal Council. Even though Michelle said he did well on the puzzle, the challenge loss was clearly put on his shoulders by Nick and Yul. At least he read Yul correctly, knowing the winner of Cook Island would be voting against him.
Nick: Quiet in the first part of the episode, we only heard from Nick after the challenge loss and he wasn’t pleased with Wendell who was showboating during the challenge instead of focusing on his job, the puzzle. It was Yul’s scheme to get Wendell’s Fire Tokens that scared Nick and decided his vote.
Tony: Once again, Tony was used for comic relief instead of being presented like a possible winner. The main Dakal scene of the episode showed Tony running “like an old man” with Jeremy, Kim and Denise laughing at him. Despite that, Tony felt comfortable with Kim and Jeremy. He also liked to know that Denise had become a big target.
Jeremy: Despite what Tony thought of Denise, Jeremy still considered him the biggest threat.
Ben: After interrogating Adam, Ben decided it was time to go look for the idol.
Kim: She was already thinking about the merge so she was trying to set up a plan to avoid being picked off. While she liked Tony, she felt more comfortable with Denise and, especially, Jeremy. It sounded strange to hear that she trusted Denise after the big move at the last Tribal Council. (maybe Denise had warned Kim about eliminating Sandra.) That would explain why Kim didn’t feel the need to play her own idol even though she had voted for a person that played an idol to cancel that vote. Just like in One World, Kim started talking about her options.
We know how good Kim is at choosing the right option.
Sarah: She knew where the idol was but she was pissed that Adam thought she had one because that rumor could put a target on her back. She told Adam he could look in her bag.
Denise: All the future jurors got to hear how Denise screwed the Queen. Sandra’s last words to the tribe were “Get Denise for me” but can they? Denise is now part of a solid three with Jeremy and Kim; that could lead them far.
Adam: Right off the bat, Adam told us he was convinced that either Ben or Sarah had the idol. He thought they saw him as an idiot who didn’t realize they were just pretending to search. Adam found it ironic that he had to do damage control when they were the ones lying to him. His interview ended with him saying: “There’s a chance that I am wrong and between Ben and Sarah, they don’t have an idol. If I’m wrong, I’ll feel like a real idiot but there are few times in Survivor that I have felt as confident as I do about this”.
Well Adam, you are a real idiot! The whole Yara scene was mostly a joke played on Adam who even talked to Sophie about his belief that: “One of them has an idol”. The editors really had fun with Adam’s mistake. For that reason, I have to remove him from the top spot. A winner wouldn’t be mocked this way.
Michelle: (3 Tokens) I think it’s important to note that the episode started with Parvati telling the others on the Edge of Extinction that, in her former tribe, Michelle was now alone against the 3 guy. That can only enhance the viewers’ respect for the predicament facing the Kâoh Rông winner. In Michelle’s first interview, we learned that she gave one of Parvati’s Fire token as a gesture of good-will but that she doesn’t plan to move forward in the game with him.
After the challenge loss, we saw a Praying Mantis attacking a smaller insect and devouring it. Yul was the prey that was about to be killed and we know that it is the female Mantis that sometimes practices cannibalism so the editors were giving credit to Michelle for the big kill. While we guessed some winners because of Animal Imagery (the yellow frog for Aras, the Tarsier for Cochran as examples) we must remember that Fairplay in Pearl Islands was symbolized by a snake who slowly ate a huge chameleon all through the episode where Rupert was eliminated (the chameleon, with ever changing colors, was even represented by Rupert’s multi-colored tie-dye shirt!!) so it isn’t necessarily a clue that Michelle is going to win but it is something.
The way Michelle went around the group during the discussion about the vote was admirable. While many outsiders, when trying to join a group, make the fatal mistake of naming their target, Michelle listened to everyone’s opinion: Her conversation with Nick was perfect modus operandi for the game of Survivor.
“I’m open to anything” she told him so he forged ahead with his plan to go after Yul. Only then did she choose which side to pick, solidifying the group around her by clearly explaining why it had to be Yul. She had the last interview of the evening and this time she wasn’t saying that she wanted to prove she deserved her first win but that is was proving she deserves to win it this time just like she deserved it the last time.
Note that, during the challenge, Michelle fell down on the balance beam even before the tribe got their disc. That caused them more than a second delay but, even though they lost by less than a second, the blame was put all on Wendell who, supposedly, lost time by trash talking with Jeff. The main defect of Michelle’s story is that it’s all focused on Wendell. She even said that she didn’t want to move forward with him but that is exactly what she chose to do. Still, up to now, she is proving to be a strong player so we must keep her in contention.
Sophie: Her first interview told us that there was tension brewing under the surface of the Yara Tribe. That tension was caused by the boys wanting to find the Hidden Immunity Idol. Sophie found that funny because she had it. Once again, she was the star of the immunity challenge.
Sophie is playing a much more focused game than in the South Pacific. There, people would come to Albert and her to talk about strategy and, while Albert would listen to their pleas, Sophie’s body language clearly showed she didn’t give a damn about them. She’d keep her eyes closed, preferring to tan instead of taking part of the conversation or, worse, she be seen taking care of her nails while turning her head away from the person talking to them. No wonder people saw her as an arrogant b*tch. Speaking of South Pacific, one of the things I didn’t understand then and that I understand even less after last week’s episode was the reaction to Albert’s big move in getting Hantz’s immunity necklace and then watching him get voted out. People simply hated him for doing that yet the applause was unanimous for Denise. I do not understand the fans sometimes.
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