Welcome to the Early Show starring Jeff Probst.Tonight’s guests include Survivor Winners and their Familes.
And Heeeere’s Jiffy!
(You may have thought you had tuned in the wrong channel; I hate to be the one to tell you but that was indeed Survivor, or what it’s become these days. I think Jiffy’s biggest career regret has been the network’s refusal to give him a talk show, shoe-boxing him in this role of Survivor Host.)
I must say that I was amused to see that production went to the trouble of setting up 10 stations that included 10 hoops and balls to make the players think they’d have to go through a challenge. What was less amusing is that Jeff has become so formulaic that as soon as he said the words “...who you are playing for...” the players immediately knew they were having the family visit even if it had never occurred this early. Right on cue, these reality TV characters became actors following production’s script and we were in for a crying session. After all, we were watching Survivor Winners; those that had already proven they could do what the show demanded.
Once all the tribes had made it back to camp, Ben had the first interview: He was surprised that the family visit had come so early but he was grateful.
We heard Sarah giving an interview while we saw her playing in the water with Tyson’s daughter. At that moment she felt everyone was putting their guns down. She was letting her sons “play with the enemy.”
Come on down!
Ta-dah ta-dam! Ta-dah Ta-dam! (playing to The Price is Right » music. Short of a talk show, I’m sure Probst would have loved his own game show)
Tonight’s contestants include all the Survivor winners left in the game.
Tony YOU are the winner of tonight’s showcase showdown!
Ben also had the post-game interview where he told us that this vote would reveal who was in control of this tribe. “Tonight, there will be blood” he said.
Koru Day 25
OK gang! grab your pop-corn, the Survivor episode is about to start.
Tony, for the first time in 3 seasons, was happy to be “wearing the bullet-proof vest.” He was surprised that it happened on a game that demanded a slow and steady approach because he was usually “fast and sloppy”! Tony does manufacture some funny quotes. He knew that people would come to him with ideas.
Sure enough, Jeremy was fast to suggest they break the Sophie-Sarah pair. Even if Tony said that Ben would never agree to it, Jeremy pushed on, telling us that the two women’s bond was dangerous for people like him who was basically playing by himself. He was frustrated to learn that Tony would not do that. His interview ended with him saying: “I don’t have a voice and that’s not how it should be.”
Despite that, HE would later choose to leave Tribal Council BEFORE his voice, in the form of his vote, could actually be heard.
Sarah talked to Tony, telling him she wanted to eliminate Kim. The policeman preferred going after Tyson. In interview, Sarah explained that Kim would win the game if they didn’t vote her out.
The conversation between Sarah and Tony continued, showing us that this was probably the most dysfunctional alliance in Survivor since Boston Rob and Big Tom in the first All-Stars. This was going to end badly, she concluded and I’m guessing she will be proven right.
When Tony saw that Jeremy and Kim went for a talk, he asked Ben and Nick if they were ready to blindside Jeremy. Tony told us that Jeremy was very fishy.
Talking to Jeremy, Kim invited Tyson to join the pair while we heard her interview in voice-over: “There’s a lot of chaos in camp.” She needed to come up with a different plan because she wasn’t part of the conversations in camp.
The three realized they had to play together, counting on Denise and Michelle to join them. Kim told Tyson and Jeremy that she had an idol. She wanted to use it to vote Sophie.
Tony told a surprised Sarah that Jeremy had been firing shots at her so they had to change the votes again.
Informed of Jeremy’s advantage, Tyson replied that he couldn’t use it because they needed his vote or else they would come up short.
In interview, Jeremy explained his dilemma: He could have safety but his alliance needed him for a vote.
Just before they left for Tribal Council, Sophie told us she wanted Sarah to play her steal-a-vote advantage so that their group could be safe.
Tribal Council
It was a mess as it has become now that production has dropped the “talk-only-when-you-are-spoken-to-by-Jeff” rule that Burnett had enforced from the start.
Right off the bat, Kim talked to Michelle, causing Sarah to go to Ben and Nick to whisper in Sophie’s ear. Tyson joined the conversation between Kim and Michelle. We then saw Michelle stand and go to the side where Sophie, Sarah, Nick and Jeremy were sitting but we were never shown with whom she talked. THIS will be important later on. Like us, the jury was trying to keep track.
After a game of chicken, (where I believe Sarah did say she wanted to steal Jeremy’s vote but, since he was leaving TC, there wasn’t going to be a vote to steal. Jeff probably had to yell “Cut” while production sorted the mess that their cornucopia of advantages had created.) we finally, had a ruling: Jeremy’s “Advantage without Power” had to be played first and THEN Sarah could steal a vote.
Jeremy left, Sarah stole the vote that Denise was going to cast and Kim played her idol to protect Denise.
In the end Kim and Tyson voted for Sophie.
Sophie and Sarah, using one of her two votes, voted for Denise.
Sarah, with her second vote, joined Ben, Nick, Tony AND Michelle in eliminating Tyson.
The Characters Jeremy: He cannot win this game. We saw the jury’s reaction when he left Tribal Council: Pointing to the distraught Kim, Tyson, Michelle and Denise. Wendell said: “That was his squad right there”, Parvati quickly adding: “He abandoned ship” to which Wendell replied: “He left his squad”.
Nick: How did he weasel his way into the alliance? Could the family visit have changed the game once more? Nick, Michelle and Sophie were the only three players still in the game without kids so maybe there was a special bond created by their partners before the big meeting. If not, then maybe during the feast the three couples got together away from the screaming kids to make a special bond. Independently of the mechanism, Nick who had been an outsider was now right there in the small majority. Even if he makes it to the end, what could Nick possibly sell to the jury?
Denise: The events should have put her in a central role but we heard very little from her. The story isn’t being told from her perspective at all so we cannot see her as a contender.
Sarah: In this joyous episode there was a meanness associated with Sarah’s presentation that makes me think she will not be our winner. Tony was much more diplomatic than her and that is saying a lot. Also, it seems evident that Sophie is the person in charge in this couple. To prove that, we just have to look at the last interview of the episode where it was Sophie who talked about using Sarah’s steal-a-vote advantage, hoping that she could convince Sarah to use it.
Tony: He continues to have fun and our newly appointed “Survivor savant” Tony could very well take his new approach all the way to the end but, like Sarah said: I think it will end badly for him.
Ben: Despite a very little actual role to play in this episode, Ben received a lot of airtime, having the first interview when the tribe returned to camp with their families and then the interview after the challenge. During the pre-merger we gave Adam the role of narrator but we now realize that it was simply because he was in the best place to tell us Ben’s story. We know Ben is Probst’s favorite but does this explain such a big edit?
Kim: How much importance should we put on the fact that they didn’t vote Kim out of the game? Will she win the game as Sarah suggested? It will be hard for her to survive the next cycles but if she does then maybe Sarah’s words will have to be seen as prophetic.
Michelle: While she wasn’t part of Sophie’s discussion group, I believe Michelle was with the group of five all along. She could then have acted as an agent double, stealing Kim’s pitch and relaying it to Sophie’s team. The editors even played into it, not showing us who Michelle talked with during the first phase of scrambling. I don’t think it was by happenstance that Michelle stood away from the other three and looked directly at the group of five when they broke huddle as we clearly see here:
I think there was a quick, silent exchange of information and that Sophie and her group knew Michelle was going to vote against Tyson.
Sophie: She clearly steered the vote after Jeremy left the Council: She stood up and asked her five to go make a decision away from the others. With Sarah eager to eliminate Kim and Tony pointing the finger at the elusive Jeremy, we saw that, once again, the game came down to “Sophie’s Choice”. It was in the huddle that she organized that the decision was made to go after Tyson, outwitting even Kim who gave her idol to Denise. If we continue to see the votes decided by Sophie’s Choices then she will have to be crowned Sole Survivor.
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