Thanks for getting this started Dangerous.
Here are my thoughts:

The recap started with Cochran’s story… “I’m the most Survivor savvy player ever…”
…Jim’s lie about his job… “I won over 20 poker tournaments and I own 2 marijuana dispenseries.”
…And Popa Bear’s honesty: “I’m a retired New York city detective and I am gay.”

They found out they weren’t alone. They were joined by two former Survivors: Coach who went to Upolu and Ozzy, who went to Savaii.
We heard Cochran’s positive take on the returning players but Jeff added that “not everyone was thrilled with the new arrivals, Christine even challenged them”: “They are temporary players.”

After Ozzy defeated Coach in a head-to-head challenge, Edna became Coach’s only friend. (We heard Coach talk about his predicament.)
Back in camp, Coach went to work: He forged a bond with Brandon and, suddenly, he had two friends.
Still in trouble, he worked his way in a conversation and walked away with an alliance of 5 consisting of all for men in the tribe and one woman, Sophie.
Coach: “I think I’m sitting pretty right now…”
The wildcard in his alliance was Brandon who was struggling with a dangerous secret.
Brandon: “I am Russell Hantz’s nephew…I will never tell them my last name.”

At Ozzy’s tribe, Cochran had no secrets…

In one of the closest immunity challenges on record (we heard that Mikayla was a scoring machine while Semhar fell short), Coach’s team squeeked out a win. (We saw Mikayla make the winning shot.
At tribal council, it came down to the two weakest: Semhar and Cochran.
Cochran saved himself by promising to imrove.
Now, Semhar is banished to Redemption Island and Cochran is under the pressure to make good on his promise before it’s too late.

Interesting that Cochran was said to have saved himself. Nothing was said about the role played by Jim and Mark in turning the votes. That seems to confine those two to being characters, not impact players.
In Upolu, we were mostly reminded of how quickly Coach had improved his situation. That is very important to note.
Although she wasn’t singled out by Jeff’s narrative, Mikayla was once more shown as a strong challenge player.

Like a network does with it’s programming, this episode of Survivor took some stories off the air, served us some old favorites that had jumped the shark, gave us very few new hits and filled the air with a lot of…

Reruns

For many players, this episode simply served to repeat the stories that emerged in episode one. There didn’t seem to be any real progression to their story arcs. It all felt very static.

Redemption Island

Semhar lamented about being abandoned by her tribe then she was given another opportunity to present her art.

Upolu-Night 3

Cochran: “Tribal Council was kind of a disaster for me…I will have to turn on the cool, mellow Cochran instead of the antsy, paranoid nerd kid that I have been for the last few days.”

He told the tribe he was happy that they kept him.
Whitney tapped him on the shoulder and said she was glad he was still there.

Ozzy: “Today, we decided we would keep Cochran so that he can redeem himself. I identify with his passion to play this game. He needs to understand that if you don’t put in the effort around camp…and in the challenges…then you might be the next one to go.”

Isn’t that a nice interview for Cochran; the tribe’s star turning the themes of redemption, improvement and passion into an integral part of his story and painting him as an underdog at the same time. And I noted that it was a very choppy confessional, telling us the editors worked hard on it so that it could deliver the desired message.

We then heard Keith and Ozzy, the two strong guys of the tribe, saying they will like to see the challenges get more mental because “Hopefully, this is where Cochran can shine.” They also agreed that Jim would be good in puzzles and he was a hard worker so they needed to talk to him about an alliance the next day.

Keith: “I really like Ozzy a lot. I think an alliance with Ozzy could be the best bet to stay strong, physically. Ozzy has played this game before and he is in it to win it just as much as we are so I have to watch him like a hawk.”

Although a new development for Keith who had very little presence last week, it all sounded like a rerun of the tape where Matt talked about Mariano last season. Keith even sounded like Phillip at the end there!

Upolu
Day 4

Coach was walking with Edna, telling her he had some bad vibes from some of the women of the tribe.

Coach: “Initially, things didn’t look too good for the dragon slayer…I feel like I have been given a second chance. I have a solid alliance with Rick, Sophie, Brandon and Albert. When it comes to friends, you never have too many, so there is Edna…Maybe I’m just a big fool but she seems like a genuinely nice person.”

The two talked about the immunity idol and how tight Christine and Stacey were.

Edna: “I think my place in the tribe is probably at the bottom. I am not one of the physically strongest girl in this tribe so I need to align myself with a stronger male player. Coach, I think he is a strong player and he has a history of playing well. I wanted to solidify my relationship with him.”

Coach: “Loyalty sometimes outweighs strength in this game. So, it is my job to protect her.”

Coach told Edna: “I’m the biggest fool in this game because I am always hopeful that I will find somebody out here that will play honorably.”

Coach has indeed learned from his previous mistakes where his original alliance with Brendon and the subsequent battle between to two, led to Timbira’s downfall.

Savaii

The new era of Cochran had begun

Cochran: “My mom will have mixed feeling about the new Cochran. She will be thrilled that I took the initiative and am doing work but, the first thing she said when she learned I was going to be doing Survivor was: I don’t want you handling the machete without supervision…New Cochran doesn’t follow mommy’s advice all the time… I need to make them think less of me as the liability and the drain on this tribe and more as the potential Survivor.”

Have you noticed that the first three scenes were all about Cochran and Coach? The two players that were in trouble and needed to improve have already done so. As for the last part of Cochran’s interview, his words may have been addressed to his tribe mates but it felt as if the editors were directing them to the audience, starting to lay the groundwork for us to accept this nerdy kid as the Sole Survivor.

Ozzy then told the tribe he was going to look for some fish but he went hunting for the idol and he soon found it.

Ozzy: “I think the idol could already be on this beach…Three times around, you start learning what to look for…I had one of these little guys in my possession before…I really squandered the opportunity to get really far in that game. I’m sure as hell not going to let that happen this time…If anyone senses that I have the idol, there’s a really big possibility that they are going to try to flush it out. If I can make it to the merge and use it at an opportune moment, this could be my ticket to the win.”

The set-up and the words we heard were much less triumphant than what we had last season when Rob found his idol. Ozzy talked mostly about the dangers the idol can bring to its holder. Maybe the editors wanted to cover their tracks but it really felt like Ozzy will have to use the idol sooner than he would have wished.

Upolu

Brandon: “I really like Coach, I think he is a good guy and he’s played the game twice with honor and integrity and I want to play the same way. How much of a hypocrit do I look like to have made an alliance with Coach and he doesn’t even know that I am Russell Hantz’s nephew? Lying to Coach was tearing away at everything I believe in…”

Brandon showed Coach his “Little Hantz” tatoo.

Coach: “He tells me that his uncle is my number one nemesis…My jaw literrally drops! I had a sinking feeling in my stomach…He voted my ##### off. So, it scared me.”

Brandon: “I don’t plan on stabbing Coach in the back. He’s my alliance and I am a man of my word.”

Coach: “I’ve been watching Brandon from the first day because I felt like we had a connection right off the bat and, clearly, he has nothing to gain by telling me that information. I think that he is true to his word. So, it’s going to go one of two ways: It’s either going to be Coached duped once again in this game or it’s going to be redemption for the Hantz family. I hope it’s the latter.”

Savaii

Elyse was still trying to channel her ancestors while Ozzy, Keith and Jim went fishing.

Jim: “It’s a lot of fun having the guys out there doing their thing and don’t think it happened by chance. I’m a world poker tour champion so I am already thinking a few moves ahead. You want to amass as many chips as you can… for the rest of the game. The fishing trip gave me a chance to put in place my 3 plus 2 plan. The three are the guys: Me, Keith and Ozzy as the core and the plus two are the two girls that we like which are Elyse and Whitney.”

Keith: “Jim has made this little alliance of 5 that he wants to go to the merge but he doesn’t suspect that me and Ozzy, we were already talking to each other. It’s strange because it lets him think that he is in control.”

Jim: “I like the plan that we have in place. I’m the orchestrator of this plan… the architect…I feel, at this moment, that we have the next three people that are going to be going home already set. Obviously Cochran, Dawn and Popa Bear. Each for their own idiosyncracies or weaknesses…I’m at the cool kids’ table but I’m barely at the table.”

Once more, Jim assembled his army but, somehow, it seems he should have stuck with his previous group. Hearing Keith say that Jim was being played tells us that Jim will be sent away from the cool kids’ table.

Upolu
Day 5

Mikayla: “At home, I bartend and I also play in a professional women’s football league… I’m a pretty tough chick. I’m kind of a tom-boy. You’ve seen me at camp: I’ll be right in with the boys, doing all the dirty work. The hardest part of the game is the social aspect: You got to have a thick skin, you can’t be a little princess. I don’t see myself as a girly-girl. I see me as a strong, just solid person and I think it’s going to help me in this game.”

Brandon in an interview after the camera showed him staring at Mikayla in her short shorts: “There’s a particular person that I don’t like and her name is Mikayla. I don’t feel comfortable around her and you can tell by the way she acts that she wants to be a model… I call her Parvati because she is using her seductive ways and her young girl attitude to get people in and get attention. It’s the ones that are good-looking and seductive that you want to get rid of. I’m a married man so I have to get away from that kind of stuff… I swear to you: I will get her voted out of this game. There ain’t no chick in the world getting in the way of me, my family and a million dollars, ever.”

This scene was the return of Taliban Brandon but note that, just like in the previous episode when he complained about Mikayla using her feminine ways to cause trouble, she was shown doing basic Survivor work and doing it well. I think that the story isn’t about Taliban Brandon but about Mikayla, the non-princess, who is proving to be a tough chick. Note also that this scene came in direct opposition to the previous scene in Savaii where the strong guys had gone fishing alone, deciding the fate of “the women they liked”. Those women weren’t working, they were just bathing in the ocean. Mikayla is meant to be seen as more deserving than the women of Savaii and she was shown to be in more danger than them. These are all good points for her future.

There are however, two details that indicate it could go Brandon’s way: When Mikayla said she wasn’t a princess, the camera showed her getting practically naked in order to go fishing which gives a bit of credibility to Brandon’s words and, by talking about his family and winning, Brandon reminds the audience of Russell’s “unfinished” business even if he was talking about his wife instead.

Christine: “At the last challenge, Jeff told us that there is an immunity idol clue…Whether there is a target on my back, I don’t know <Right then we saw Sophie wielding the machete to tell the audience in a funny way that indeed there was a target on Christine> I found the clue. I’m freaking out…I have this clue and I don’t know what to do: Do I tell them, do I not tell them?”

The Challenge

When Upolu learned that Savaii had eliminated Semhar, the camera went to Brandon as if to show his pleasure at seeing one good-looking woman voted out.
Coach told Jeff about the fruit they had found and that it would help them win together.
Edna was designated to sit on the bench and we heard that she was fine with the team’s decision.
Cochran was the only man doing the pole “dance”. All the other men would handle the crates.
Jeff said: “Upolu, working well together. Cochran is getting tied up in a ribbon.”
We also heard that “Dawn needs to pick up the pace. This is not a picnic.”
“Upolu has a big lead…Savaii has some catching up to do.
Upolu really taking their time…Savaii is flying through this puzzle.”

Just as Savaii was getting close, we clearly saw Cochran giving the proper instructions to solve the puzzle.

Maybe I am over-analyzing this challenge but none of the men of Savaii pushing the crates were highlighted in this huge come-back victory. Jeff never said Ozzy is leading the team, Jim is working hard or Popa Bear doing great. In such a dramatic win, the eventual Sole Survivor would have received some glory if he had been part of that effort. Instead, with subtlety, Cochran was the one shown directing the tribe, giving credence to Keith’s words about him, that they need him for the puzzles. Therefore, I would tend to say that the winner isn’t one of the 4 men of Savaii that handled the crates. No one from Upolu received blame directly for losing the challenge so it didn’t hurt anyone’s chances.

Brandon: “We were definitely over-confident in this challenge. You get too cocky, you get knocked off your pedestal. Now, we have to vote somebody out and I’m going to make sure Mikayla goes home tonight.”

It’s interesting that the last sentence was said with arrogance. Will it be the beginning of Brandon’s fall?

Upolu

Chrisine: “We lost the challenge…It started out well but the guys were just walking…”

Coach: “We need to flush the idol if the idol is out there so that’s why we are going to split the votes. We are going to put 3 votes on Christine because I haven’t forgotten what Christine said on day 1. Coach is a temporary player. That really pissed me off plus I haven’t forgiven her for running around looking for the immunity idol. Christine and Stacey are thick as thieves so we will get one or the other.”

This isn’t editing analysis but I am always amazed that the players always decide to split the votes. It tells one person that they are clearly seen as an outsider. The best strategy is to go to the person that might have the idol, give him or her a target and then you don’t have to worry about an idol bounce. Sort of like what Brandon did with telling Christine to vote for Mikayla but he wasn’t doing it as part of a plan to flush the idol.

Brandon told Coach of his doubts about Mikayla and that he wanted to be faithful to his wife. He added: “I keep think of Pavarti, Pavarti, Parvati. She screwed many a man.”

Note that, once again, Mikayla was shown catching a fish while this exchanged took place, something not very Parvati-like!

Coach: “Mikayla is our strongest female player but Brandon has a wife and family and she makes him uncomfortable. A young, good-looking girl, I understand but, to vote her off immediately? Come on. I just think that he has demons…” <Just then the camera showed us the Loco tatoo on Brandon’s neck.>

Sophie: “For some reason or other, Brandon wants to vote out Mikayla. I don’t know what his deal is, Maybe Brandon is threatened by Mikayla because she is a strong woman. If that’s the case, it worries me because I think I am quite strong as well.”

When Mikayla approached the group, Coach asked her to give them privacy.

Mikayla: “There is a mad scramble right now and all of a sudden they think that I am not trustable. Are you kidding me? I didn’t do anything.”

Christine asked Edna about the discussion and caught her in a lie.
Brandon told Christine and Stacy to vote against Mikayla.
Christine was confused.
Coach and Brandon had another discussion and Brandon said that Christine and Stacy were voting Mikayla.

Brandon: “I hate to do this to people but I just walked up to Coach and I lied to him. I don’t like Mikayla, I don’t trust her. Mikayla has every guy wrapped around her finger but me. It’s just not going to happen.”

Coach: “I hear that Stacy and Christine are going to vote Mikayla and that pisses the heck out of me because she has done nothing wrong. Brandon wants to control the situation and, if he wants an outcome, he is willing to risk X, Y and Z to get that outcome.“

Then, adressing Rick, Albert, Sophie and Mikayla, Coach said: “I hate being like this but this game is simple: You find people that are loyal to you and that is it. You are loyal or you are disloyal.”

Coach: “I hope and pray that the 6 persons I have aligned myself with have the character that I judged them for. If not, there’s going to be an #####-whipping at tribal council tonight.”

The question is whether or not Coach was counting Mikayla or Brandon as part of his 6 at this time.

Tribal Council

Brandon said he thought he had made a good first impression because he was a hard worker.
Coach quickly jumped from the bad impression he had made after losing the first challenge to the rumor he had heard before TC; that Stacy and Christine wanted to vote out Mikayla. He added: “Don’t look like you think I’m crazy because Coach at tribal Council just lays everything out on the table.”
Stacy said she hadn’t told him that.
Jeff said he was glad Coach was back.
Coach continued: “Survivor is a very simple game: You find people that are loyal and you try to stick with those people. Right now, I don’t want Mikayla going home tonight, putting a bigger target on my back but I want to see this tribe to win the next challenge.”
Mikayla said she was nervous: “You never want to hear your name come up.”
Stacy and Christine wanted to know where Coach had heard that they were after Mikayla.
Caoch remained silent, protecting his source.
Albert interjected: “For the record… I didn’t tell him… but if you are going to question the idea of loyalty look at how you are going about that. Him not saying who told him that is demonstrating loyalty. As for paranoia, I think the idea of the idol and who might have it…that is the raindrop that started the monsoon…”
Coach said he saw Christine looking for the idol.
Christine thought Coach was threatened by her and that it went back to day 1.
Jeff was surprised that Mikayla hadn’t asked Christine or Stacy if they had said it. He added: “If you go home tonight, it will be the quietest exit I have seen in a while.”
Mikayla asked and both denied it vehemently.
Then Brandon decided to come clean. He told everyone that he was the one to say vote for Mikayla.
Coach and Sophie seemed to have a revelation.
Jeff welcomed Mikayla to Survivor.
Albert said they received more information than they had bargained for but that it was great to have everything surface. “A person’s character will creep to the surface no matter how hard they try to mask that.”

During the vote, the camera focused a few times on Mikayla even if she didn’t receive a single vote. Sophie and Edna received the stray votes.

Once the votes were read, we saw Coach’s expression of satisfaction, Brandon’s defeated look and a sigh of relief from Mikayla. Nothing from Stacy, Sophie or Edna.

Jeff left them with the thought that their biggest obstacle was trust and that they needed to work on that or they would be coming back to TC.

The Story

The first episode left us with some ideas to the themes of the season. Namely, we had:
- The importance of Teamwork. In this episode we noted that the women of Upolu worked well togheter but the team still lost and one woman was voted out. The men of Savaii had a huge come-from-behind victory but received no recognition from Jeff. In fact, their victory could have been subtly attributed to Cochran: Keith told us he counted on him for puzzles and we saw him giving advice to move the crates.

- The need to focus on the positive, visualize success and get rid of the negative thoughts: The story of three players can be analyzed in light of this theme: Cochran, Coach and Brandon.
- Facing fears: The only instance that I saw this theme come into play was when Cochran let go of mom’s advice and used the machete on his own.
- Learning from mistakes: Ozzy talked about his previous mistake with the idol but it is yet to be seen if he can do anything about it.
- Stepping up. If anything Elyse failed to connect with her ancestors and couldn’t catch any fish.
- The need to be prepared: Ozzy was prepared to find the idol without a clue even if he wasn;t in immediate danger.
- A person can improve: Cochran did provide for his tribe. It was only a coconut but still…
- That need to harness your passion and stand up to what everyone says is impossible and doing it: Here again three players had connections to this theme, Coach, Cochran and Mikayla.

The Characters

Their Stories are either still in development or have been rejected:

Whitney and Elyse: They were presented as part of Jim’s alliance and they are liked by the men of the tribe so they could last a while but they don’t have a story of their own.

Keith: We saw that he was close to Ozzy like the episode #1 voting discussion had revealed. He did expose part of his plans so he could develop into an interesting player but his story hasn’t taken off yet.

Albert: He is Coach’s trusted sidekick and his lack of airtime definitely reminds us of Grant.

Stacy: Her presence served only to explain why the vote had to be split between her and Christine. There really is no reason why she shouldn’t be the next one voted out of Upolu unless Brendan becomes insufferable.

Stories that were pulled of the Air

Popa Bear, Dawn and Rick: After an interesting premiere last week, it was troubling that they were forgotten in this episode. It doesn’t look good for their future.

Stories that Jumped the Shark
Ozzy: Maybe some will say that Ozzy jumped the shark a long time ago but, in this season, this episode left me with the impression that he had nothing else to offer his fans. He found an idol but there was very little excitement or drama in that scene. It was all very factual: We had to know that Ozzy had the idol but that seemed to be all that mattered. Ozzy isn’t showing good teamwork and, as for passion, he seems to be simply going through the motions. He told us that he wanted to have a better strategy this time but the strategy talks have been left mostly to Jim with Keith of all people as his only rival.

Jim: After an interesting first episode it seems that Jim, while a good poker player, isn’t prepared for the intricacies of Survivor. (He wouldn’t be the first, n’est-ce pas, Jean Robert?) He seems that he will be outwited by Keith and it was troubling to hear him put the target on those that had formed his army last time.

Reruns: We didn’t learn much new from these contestants but they are still on the Air:

Brandon: He is stuck in a two note tune. He is Russell’s nephew and he has bad thoughts when he sees Mikayla. He really can’t get rid of those negative thoughts so his story is in opposition to what appears to be a major theme this season. He was revealed as a liar and Coach’s words about honesty and wanting to see if people were true to their characters leads me to believe that Brandon could be the next to go in Upolu. Maybe his desire to change the Hantz legacy will be limited to winning a redemption island duel or two!

Sophie: There wasn’t anything new to Sophie’s story since we had already seen that she was in Coach’s alliance and that she had doubts about Brandon. The only new development was a suggestion that she could team up with Mikayla.

Edna: She did solidify her alliance with Coach but that wasn’t really new. If she does turn out to be Coach’s Natalie then she will certainly be better at presenting her arguments to the jury but she needs to have some connections to the themes before we can talk about her chances of winning.

Potential Hit

Mikayla: There is a nice story built around Mikayla. She is connected to the preparation theme by telling us she came to Survivor ready to do the dirty work and she is displaying good teamwork. That means she could be a journey player, out to prove that she is a valuable tough person.
The passion theme works against her though: Jeff called her out for her quiet demeanor at Tribal Council, surprised by how she was taking the news that she was a target. The beginning on the next episode will show if she can get rid of those negative thoughts.
It seems that she will outlast her tormentor as we always see her working when Brandon is saying that she is only using her charms but Jeff’s assessment puts her chances of being the Sole Survivor at risk.

The Season’s Hits (The two Top Contenders)

Coach: His passion for the game is evident and he has improved a lot since last time. Not only is he more cautious with the people he approaches but we haven’t seen him telling a single campfire story or even doing Coach things; meditating and stretching by the ocean. He reminds himself of his previous failures but he is able to get over it and make interesting deals. Coach v3.0 is a lot less dramatic than the original even if his approach at tribal council was typical Coach behavior. He had a plan in mind and he did expose the truth. If trust is what Upolu needs, Coach’s tactic will be very helpful to the team.

Cochran: Ozzy connected Cochran directly to the theme of passion that the veteran had introduced in the last episode. That is a very strong indication that Cochran could be our winner. Add his ability to get rid of negative thoughts and do the work that helped the team while facing his fears and we have a very interesting story.