Like Quarks and Gluons, our players wear colors and, instead of obeying the laws of Quantum Mechanics, they follow the Rules of Probst. They exist in Many-Worlds, an infinite number of possibilities each representing a different solution to the basic equation. In Quantum Mechanics, that equation was first determined by Schrodïnger and the general time-dependant equation reads: ih d/dt| Ѱ (t)> = H| Ѱ (t)>
T represents time, | Ѱ (t) is the state vector of the quantum system and H is the Hamiltonian Operator of a measurable property.
In Survivor, we have something similar
ih d/dt|S(t) > = M|S(t)>
Where S represents the Season’s vector of the remaining Players and M is the Mariano Operator which represents the maximum value, or interest if you will, a Season can have according to Probst. Any Season that ends without a Boston Rob Victory has a lower Energy state, a less interesting season as judged by Probst.
Every week the editors look at the infinite numbers of scenarios generated by varying slightly the value of the Mariano. Since our TV, phones, I Pads and whatever else we use to watch the show have limited reception capabilities, they have to select one Universe to show us at a time but there are other events that simply wind up in the trash can. Let’s see how this episode develops and I promise you some looks into parallel universes.
Universe #14
In this Universe, Survivor was cancelled after Season 13 where Adam became Sole Survivor after riding the All-White alliance to the end and defeating Penner in the Final 2. So instead, we are watching « The Mole – Season 20 » which was, if not the best, certainly the most intelligent Reality TV series of all time. Anderson Cooper as host, brought an instant credibility that Probst never had.
Universe #215
Just when I thought we’d have a fun evening of Television with The Mole, I change Worlds and see the Players returning to camp after eliminating Kellie.
The musicians are as sad as Kendra who sends a toast across the lagoon to her fallen Comrades.
Wait! Is there a time differential error in the equation? Aren’t we only at Episode 9? The Fallen Comrade segment is usually in the Final episode, no? Ah! My mistake, Kendra was only toasting her friend, not the whole group and anyway, they don’t do the «Fallen Comrades» segment anymore. At least not in the hundreds of Worlds we’ve seen lately.
Kendra’s somber mood was interrupted by Jake’s laugh.
I swear that guy always laughs. When time comes to give his eulogy, the person giving it will probably have to tell Jake to shut up.
Universe #598571 (It’s all white, every where you look; white. It’s like the negative of a picture taken in a dark room.)
In the distance, a maniacal laugh is heard. It is slowly approaching, torturing us until we can’t take it anymore. It is Jake and he was left alone in this dimension while the others used the time to talk about Kellie’s elimination.
Universe # 236
This one is hilarious! Jake thinks he still has a chance of winning!
Universe #1+2+3+4+5+6+… = -1/12
Bruce is dumbfounded that his #1 ally, Kellie, was trying to vote him out.
Bruce may think it’s impossible but the vast majority of the Many-Worlds come up with this singular result: Kellie was sick and tired of you. In fact, in the Worlds where Bruce had not won immunity, Kellie would have voted him out.
Dee even tells Bruce that Kellie felt like he was keeping her under house arrest. This leads Bruce to reflect on his relation with his own wife and daughter. Maybe he was wrong to kill them...
Stop! That’s in a different Universe and the family crime is under investigation so we cannot talk about it.
Getting back to World #5, Bruce says he must change his attitude even out of the game, starting with his family.
Watching this at home, his wife and daughter finally exhale. After all these fights, someone has gotten through to him. Both women realize that Dee is amazing and they will try to get her contact # at the reunion.
Universe #36963542 (In this world, SeeBS used an accelerated schedule of 2 shows per week because people couldn’t stand 3 episodes of Ghost and Ghost UK in a single week. )
Kendra, after making the move of the season and blindsiding Dee, is at the F3 Tribal Council and she is going to win the game because of Kellie’s vote.
Let’s hurry back to a saner place Like... Universe #2354-A
Katurah, after agreeing with Kendra to stick together, goes directly to Julie, Dee’s friend (I mean she didn’t even pass « Go » and didn’t collect $200 ) and reveals Kendra’s scheme.
Katurah realizes that her fortune in this game is rotten every time she is designated to be a Bellow Player. She’d like to find a World where the Survivor God (aka Probst) puts her in Reebok.
In almost every World imaginable, Julie takes Katurah’s information and tells it to Dee.
Maybe there is a world or two where Julie acts differently and blindsides Dee but I’ve looked and I can’t find any. It’s like trying to find a World where Gregg follows his own advice and makes a move on Tom before Tom sends him packing. In some worlds, just like some Japanese soldiers remained hidden in the South Pacific jungles until the 1950s hoping to see their Emperor win the war, Gregg is still in the forests of Palau planning his move.
Universe #458785
Austin the alchemist has mastered the powers of the Philosopher’s Stone and he was able to transform his amulette into a real Immunity idol with full powers.
Universe# 69654
Austin has so much firepower that he starts planning a mass shooting. He mentions wanting to eliminate Bruce, Jake and Kendra.
I would check Austin’s internet footprint to see if he harbours animosity against any specific group of people outside that Bellow group. At least we know that Dee is safe around him.
However if we calculate the Probability of Dee Winning the whole thing, we get:
M|Dee/Austin(t)> = 1
The Mariano Operator, under these conditions, tends to 1, its maximim value since it represents 100% probability. So Dee wins over Austin every time.
And if we calculate M|Dee/Audience satisfaction(t)> we get 0.69.
This tells us with a 69% probability that a win by Dee would please the audience. It won’t be as thrilling as a win by Boston Rob in the eyes of Probst but it is the maximum value of our Mariano Operator applied to the remaining cast. (You should see Katurah’s score!)
Even with the certainty that she wins the game over him, Austin will never make a move against Dee. Not in this World and not in any other.
By the way, it seems our Fijian warrior has made his choice: He finally liked a plan that was expressed before he jumped on our screen. Austin mentioned Kendra as one of his targets and she left. It hadn’t worked so well for Kellie.
Universe #125
Drew is psychoanalyzing Bruce who’s perception of reality is failing. According to Drew, Bruce was living in an imaginary world and now reality is catching up to him.
Silly, silly boy! Drew doesn’t realize that Bruce has a rare ability: He can travel from one Universe into another. How else do you explain his appearance in both Survivor 44 and 45 ?! In a World we haven’t visited yet, Bruce beat Drew so badly that the nerd didn’t even make it to the merger. There are other worlds in which Bruce beats Drew in the Fire-making challenge. We could still visit one of those worlds before the end.
Universe#323
Emily is jealous of Dee. She sees how much attention she gets from Austin and Drew. Emily would like to be the center of their world so she tries to divide them.
Emily, you dumb broad! Don’t you know how men think, or rather react? It’s not even conscious, it’s genetics: A girl like you can’t go toe to toe against Dee. You can’t beat her in the eyes of randy boys like Austin and Drew. So, get over it and toe the line.
Universe # 23
In this one, it sems we will only get one challenge because Drew has tree mail and it tells them that one player will get immunity but they have to divide in teams of three.
The Probabilities:
Ok, this is not a quantum mechanics probabilistic equation. It is basic probabilities where we have a limited number of possibiliites which is established by the equation:
T = n! / r! * (n-r)!
T is the number of different teams we could have obtained, n is the number of players in the game (9), and r is the size of the teams (3)
So T = 9! /3! *6! or in expanded form
= 9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1/ (3*2*1) * (6*5*4*3*2*1)
Eliminating common factors, we are left with
T = 9*8*7/3*2*1 = 84
There were 84 different combinations of teams we could have suffered. But all those have an infinite number of Worlds in which they evolved. For example:
Universe #295
Bruce falls off the beam, splits his head open and becomes the first player ever medically removed from two consecutive seasons.
Universe #10245
Kendra’s armpit hair get tangle in the ropes and she cannot get across the obstacle.
Universe#14587
In this one Boston Rob replaced Probst after SeeBS got tired of losing viewers. So, with Rob in charge we hear his encouragements to the players:
«Dig deep! That’s how I did it on Survivor. »
Universe #2
A team of Katurah, Bruce and Jake wins the challenge but they are so angry at each other that they decline the reward, opt to go on the trek as long as three different boats get them there and they start the journey where the trails divide so they don’t have to talk to each other. Too bad we just missed out on that one.
Universe#555
Like everyone knows, Quarks have both colors and flavors. This gives us:
Drew, Jake and Dee are the Red Quarks
Bruce, Julie and Kendra are the Green Quarks
Austin, Katurah and Emily are the Blue Quarks
Bruce is a « Down » Quark while Julie and Kendra are « Up ».
Drew is a « Strange » Quark «, Jake is a « Bottom » Quark while Dee is a « Charm » Quark.
Austin is a « Top » Quark, Emily is a « Bottom » and Katurah is a « Down » Quark.
I’m sure you guys are up to speed on your Quantum Mechanics and its colored-coded, flavored Quarks to know that 1 «Down» Quark with 2 «Up» quarks form a proton which is the only stable Hadron of the three teams so, of course, Bruce, Julie and Kendra win the 3 team challenge and the reward associated with it.
A «Top», «Bottom« and «Down » grouping is quite unstable so Austin, Emily and Katurah lose the challenge and their vote. They learn that they will go on a trek where they could recover that vote.
Now, I’m sure you can determine through Quantum observations alone who will win individual immunity, right? Of course you can! It’s simple really to spoil this part of the show because Bruce, being a «Down» quark, only has to support a –1/3 charge. Both «Up» Quarks have a +2/3 charge making Kendra and Julie’s job impossible. Julie tries hard and pushes Bruce to his limits but he once again prevails.
By the way, did anyone figure out why the discs had small metal cymbals attached to them? It was in case Jiffy dozed off and didn’t see someone dropping their disk. The clear metal sound would wake him up so that he could call it and still appear to be on top of things.
Returning to camp, Drew did a good job explaining the different scenarios that could play out in different worlds. Bruce still has immunity and his idol. Drew and his team don’t have the reward but they have their vote. They have to wait to strategize to see what the other groups want and how many votes will be in play. So, in waiting, they will eat rice. Drew and Dee used the fact that Jake went for a walk to eat most of the rice. They even had a nice story for him when he came back: They had burnt most of the rice but had managed to save a small portion for him. Jake is so obliviously joyful, it is nice to see.
The Sanctuary
Besides getting chicken smeared all over their face and fingers, the 3 agree on eliminating Jake.
The Trek and more Maths!
So, how many possibilities were there for our Trekkies? This is fairly easy as it is the same thing as throwing 3 coins in the air and seeing if you get 3 Heads, 2 Heads, 1 Head or no Head. In other words:
P = 2 to the power of 3 or P = 8
The test was based on numbers. The players were asked to get a total of 100 by using 3 addition signs and 1 minus sign from the following set of numbers:
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To simplify things, they were told not to change the order of the numbers.
The rule here is to always make it simple. So 98 is close to 100 so if I start with that, I know I have to subtract a large number since I can only do additions after that:
Let’s go simple 98 – 76 = 22
So now I’m missing 78 to reach 100. The next two number are 54 so let’s add them to 22 and get 76. Now I’m only missing 24. I got a 3 a 2 and a 1 left. It’s fairly easy to see that 3 +21 equals 24 so the solution is straightforward:
98 – 76 + 54 + 3 + 21 = 100 .
Simple, yet Emily, who kept telling herself not to choke seeing how important her vote was, and Katurah choked.
Austin regained his vote.
In kind of breaking the 4th wall, Jake asks Drew if there are any worlds in which he can survive.
Drew, who isn’t a doctor in Physics, tells him that it depends on how many people are voting tonight. In the worlds where Katurah has a vote, Jake is in grave danger. In the others, he’s still not safe but his odds are better.
Jake says he will act like a nice dog which tells me he didn’t read my « Animals» lecture on Survivor. Dogs aren’t the cute animals that you want to take with you to the end. Those are sheeps. Instead, the dogs are used by the pigs to get rid of those sheeps.
The Trekkies tell everyone that they missed their chance and don’t have a vote. However, as soon as he has a moment with his Reebok friends, Austin comes clean and admits he has a vote. The foursome debates whether Jake or Kendra goes home.
There may be many variations in the Multiverses but if I tell you that Dee is gunning for Kendra while Julie is the one pointing the target at Jake, which do you think will succeed? If you like, we can go back to our familiar Operator:
M|Dee/Julie(t)> = 0.99999 or, if you prefer:
M|Julie/Dee(t)> = 0.00001
The Operator reveals that in only 1 out of every 10 000 worlds Julie wins an argument over Dee, especially if Austin and Drew are the ones chosing sides.
The only variable was Emily which was strange since she didn’t have a vote. When she heard Drew mentioning Kendra she alsmost started a revolution saying it had to be Jake.
Why would a group of 4 listen to an isolated player, especially one with no votes? Yes, Julie’s reticence played a factor but one can only wonder why the show paid so much attention to what Emily wanted.
Tribal Council
Somehow, Drew entered Tribal Council with a sword. Which one? Well, it depends on which Universe you were observing. It was either:
1 - Excalibur: Neither Drew nor anyone else was able to remove the word from its stone so everyone was eliminated except for Bruce who was immune, Austin and Dee because of the immunity idols. So, in the worlds with Excalibur, we will be watching the final 3 next week with Dee, Austin and Bruce facing off.
Joyeuse Charlemagne’s sword has many legends and it certainly beheaded many foes but it also united Europe. The only way for this sword to be joyful is if everyone is safe so Drew eliminates Probst. Pagong tried to do it in Season one but it took until season 45 for someone to have the balls to carry it out.
Sting Frodo’s sword was good to scare Orchs and Gollom but it doesn’t do much against humans. Probst got mad when he saw Sting and threw it in the fire. He ordered the players to vote immediately and when the vote came back tied 3 – 3 between Kendra and Jake, he sent both to Loser Lodge without bothering for a revote. Jake had thrown his vote on Julie so he only had himself to blame for the 3-3-1 result.
Durandal: Roland’s sword was able to cut through boulders of stone with one strike. It’s power scared Drew so, in order to get rid of it, he quit on the spot.
Damocles: Subtly, Drew placed his sword high above his target’s head. Everyone was uncomfortable sitting there, answering Probst’s question knowing that, at any time, A sword could fall and kill them. In the end, Kendra, Drew’s real target, felt the wrath of Damocles.
When Jiffy read the votes, the wave function collapsed into a single reality, the only moment of truth on Survivor: Besides Kendra who wrote Jake’s name, everyone else with a vote put it on Kendra.
Jake learned his lesson and kept his mouth shut throughout the snuffing of the torch and the walk to camp but I am sure that all the creatures in the jungle that sleep at night were awakened by his maniacal laugh.
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