Friday 13 April 2012

Million Dollar Chicken?




My blog on this week’s episode of Survivor One World was a bit delayed, because for once, I was lost for words on this episode. Maybe it’s because I got bored in a long never-ending lecture and decided to read the live tweets before I watched the episode while I sat in boredom, or possibly the way was edited with the ominous music, how unassuming the episode was, or the fact the events this episode will probably be pivotal to the rest of the game. Nonetheless, I thought this was a fantastic episode.

One thing I do know is that my pre season pick to win- Kim- continues to impress me. I thought that even if she is invisible in an episode and under the radar for a stretch of episodes, this would have been the kind of edit that won’t be surprising for her predicted win since she is a woman in a season with many big camera time hogs. But her screen time never fades and she is constantly in action- she is certainly not Natalie White. Jeff’s “previously on Survivor” recap gave her a lot of focus yet again from the group reward that she won to having her bold move pay off. Since last weeks episode I began to have doubts about her chances of winning because her edit was too flawless and maybe the sadistic editors are setting her up for a fall. After this episode I nearly tweeted that I don’t think she would win now. They showed her making an alliance with Jay and Troyzan a few weeks back and now she decides to cut them lose to further her game. She has confidence in Chelsea keeping the secret of her Idol, but now Chelsea is displaying emotions of wanting to keep the new targets. She relaxes on the boat like a queen at the throne and her minions answer to her every beck and call. And she orchestrates another blindside that could have rebounded right on her. More on that later. After all the doubt in the episode, a light bulb went of in my head and then I realized that this is exactly what the editors wanted to achieve- mess with our minds by creating doubt about players. All the doubt in this episode makes me more positive than ever that she will win this season because the editors have to have some cool down moments for characters so that the winner isn’t obvious.

The episode was not good for Jay Bird. There have been several scenes and imagery that foreshadowed that he would be going home by the end of the episode. Firstly there was the dream that he mentioned where he got shot. Then after he says that there will be blindsides, an owl hoots and the ominous winds sweep through, the episode becomes progressively darker, and there is imagery of a bird that flies that falls to the ground. Jay’s game play really confused me. On the first episode he spoke about how he was going to make a two way alliance with the girls. Later on he realized that the Roosters were down in numbers and he made himself safe by joining the misfits. Thereafter he formed the New Salani alliance which I thought would take him much further. What baffles me is that last week he was suspicious that there is an all girls alliance in play, yet still votes out Mike, despite being paranoid the entire episode, and this week his suspicion of the females alliance is confirmed yet he betrays Troyzan by telling Kim about the idol and puts his trust in people that want to vote him out. Even his behavior at the immunity challenge made me say WTF- he openly threatens to vote out Alicia (Jay: “if you take that food, I will vote you out”) and then he drops out of the challenge for beer and chicken (note that he went on a barbeque reward on the previous day). His reasoning must have been that he didn’t want people to see him as a threat, but he already marked himself as a threat by winning immunity last week and he knows about the all girl alliance.

Chelsea has become more of an interesting character. She showed emotions yet again over the decision to boot Jay. These emotions seem to tick off her allies, where even Kat acknowledges how risky this is .It’s the same attitude that she had when she didn’t want to vote out Nina and Jonas. She clearly feels bad about voting people off. Sounds familiar- Amanda Kimmel anyone? However, I think that this is actually helping her game. In the first ponderosa video, we saw Jonas hug Chelsea before leaving, we saw hunt with Mike and there were many scenes with her and Jay. She clearly has a very good social game. Kim did give her the editing kiss off death when she referred to Chelsea as “not really playing the game” or as “asinine”. However I can’t help wonder, dare I say, that maybe the story of the season is that Kim underestimates Chelsea and ultimately loses to her? For some reason, she reminds me of a much younger Tina Wesson.

“When it rains- it pours”

This is one of my favorites and it’s always epic. Theresa won it way back in Africa, Shii Ann outlasted Rupert and caused Boston Rob’s tribe to cannibalize each other, and Parvati won it twice. This challenge was just as eventful. Tarzan falls of before Jeff announces the start of the challenge and Christina follows shortly after. Then Jeff quickly begins to tempt them. Might I add, the cupcakes did not look nice at all. Sabrina, Kat and Kim drop out for sweets and Jeff taunts them about them feeling safe. I don’t think I have ever heard Jeff’s comments be so abrasive, but he stirred the pot really well and this added to the unpredictability of the episode. Alicia bows out after hearing Jay’s seemingly playing threats that he would vote her out and telling Chelsea that she is giving up for her to win. Troyzan loses his balance and falls and upon sight of chicken wings, Jays jumps out without hesitation. If Russell Hantz was there he would have said: “I hope those chicken wings tasted like a million dollars because that’s what it cost you”. Leif and Chelsea are the last two. I can’t help thinking of this scenario in a nerdy way- From a Physical Science point of view, Leif has the advantage to win. Since his chain is longer, there will be less tension on it because the force is distributed over a larger space. He would be able to move his hand much more than the others without the tipping the bucket too much. Back to Survivor- the Chelsea-Leif exchange was really silly. She tells him that he should step down because people will see him as a threat and Jeff echoes her words and confuses Leif. Even his facial expression was mixed with curiosity, ignorance and trust. After Jeff brings out burgers and chips Chelsea plays on his emotions yet again that he will be less of a threat if he steps down, and he confirms that with her and steps down, and she wins immunity. That whole scene was comical. Leif strikes me as the players from Borneo (excluding the Tagi 4) who didn’t know the game and votes wherever the wind blows, but it’s evident that he is a really good person- when he shares the burgers with Chelsea. I actually wish he won the reward challenge because it would have been fun to watch him jump around and scream “barbeque, barbeque, barbeque” again. He does make for a really good, child-like character and appears to be very likable.

There’s nothing like an episode where there is some good old fashioned scrambling. Early on, Jay tries to get reassurance from Kat (who finally proves how strategic she is), who delivers a really witty line- Kat: “What do you expect me to say- no?” Jay is now paranoid about the girls and tells Troyzan who reveals the idol. Jay gets scared- why I will never understand, and spills the beans to the ever calculating Kim. Alicia agrees to be a decoy boot and Kim lays out the plans spilt to vote to flush the idol. She proves yet again how savvy she is with strategy when she confesses how nervous the risky maneuver makes her. She says that Christina, Alicia and Tarzan will vote for Jay, and she, Sabrina, Kat, Chelsea and Leif will vote for Troyzan. Pause button- am I missing something. When did Tarzan and Leif become inducted into their voting block? Next- isn’t this a bit to risky to pull off? There’s a split vote, an idol, a person who votes with no strategy, and an old man who supposedly forgets people’s names. So much could go wrong. We see a shot of Troyzan trying to flip Christina and Kim worries that there isn’t enough time to tell everybody the plan.

At tribal council, Tarzan was another confusing player. He says the women are smarter and that the men broke their allegiance and lost their will several days ago, speaking in a manner as though he is an observer of the game and had absolutely no ties to the men’s dysfunction. He also says that the alliance that he knows of will strengthen, and that there will be a power house that will take them to the end.

Kim, Jay and Troyzan reveal that they feel unsafe while Jeff calls out the rest of them for feeling over confidant.

Chelsea talks about honesty and about looking people in the eye, and the camera shifts to show Kim and Troyzan turning to each other at these words- battle lines are being drawn. With the camera focus and sound effects, you know this will be epic.

Voting time- Jay fulfills his threat of voting for Alicia, Kat votes for monkey man and says she is sorry and she has no choice (really?), and Troyzan votes for Kim and apologizes and says she is the strongest player in the game.

Jeff gets the votes and Troyzan plays the idol. I’m a bit surprised that Kim did not counter by playing her idol. She obviously knows she is safe.

The votes are split 4-2-1-0 (Jay-Alicia-Kim-Troyzan) and Jay is voted out and congratulates the girls.

I’d like to point out that although Kim’s plan to flush the idol and vote out Jay was successful (which Jeff will shower her with complements in next weeks recap for), the voting didn’t go as planned and this is what makes the episode so unassuming. Leif doesn’t vote with the alliance and Kim and Sabrina vote for Jay and not Troyzan. This could have blown up on Kim.

· The safe way to split the votes is to send equal number of votes to two targets. If Troyzan played the idol for Jay, the vote would have been tied and Alicia could have went home.

· If Troyzan voted for Alicia (like Jay and Leif), she would have been voted out

Look at what happened to both majority alliances in Heroes versus Villains when the split vote rebounded. Tyson swaps his vote and ends up getting voted out by one extra vote. Then JT flips on the majority and Cirrie gets idoled. Lesson- splitting the vote is dangerous.

There were a lot of edit inconsistencies in this episode:

· Chelsea says- “did it taste better than the chicken I caught?”- I thought the women refused to share the chicken.

· When did Leif and Tarzan become part of the girl’s alliance, why was Kim so confidant that they will vote how she tells them, and what promises did she make them?

· When did Kim find out that another idol is in play? Chelsea did confess that the people on the reward will keep it a secret

Winners quotes:

· Kat: "I can't think with my heart, and neither can Chelsea, neither can Sabrina, neither can Kim. We need to stick with our minds. Strategically- that's how people win this game."

· Chelsea: "I have to prove my self"

· Kim: “I think that the people on the jury will know that I was making most of these decisions”. (Wasn’t Natalie White’s early confessions a lot like this?)

· Chelsea: “I hate to be that person, but I love money”

Next week I predict that Troyzan will buy a clue in the auction and will go on the win immunity. Chelsea will become emotional when Kim rules that they should vote out Leif and she doesn’t want to go along with the plan, but ends up voting him off. Troyzan will say- “This is my island”, after winning immunity. Kim will confess that she is insecure and considers playing the idol, which she decides to keep. Just have to wait and see…

So a confusing episode was matched with this confusing blog. Can’t wait to see how the next episode plays out.

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Other recaps and blogs that are fun to read

http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/2012/04/11/survivor-one-world-recap-align-in-the-sand/">Gordon Holmes at XfinityTV: "Align in the Sand"

http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/survivor-one-world-episode-9-jay/">Dalton Ross at EW.com: "Man o' War"

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/04/12/jeff-probst-episode-9-survivor-one-world/">Dalton Ross & Jeff Probst at EW.com: Q&A

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/survivor_one_world/2012_Apr_12_jay-out">Andy Dehnart at RealityBlurred.com: "Survivor reaches the point where there's a lot of fondling but not much action"

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20586490,00.html">Stephen Fishbach at People.com: "How Jay Undoes A Season's Worth of Gameplay"

http://couchtimewithjill.com/2012/04/12/survivor-man-vs-food/">Jill Mader at CouchtimeWithJill.com: "Man vs. Food"

http://superjude.blog.com/2012/04/12/survivor-one-world-episode-9-thoughts/">SuperJude at xXSuperJudeXx's SuperBlog™: "Episode 9 Thoughts"

http://survivingsurvivor.com/one-world-episode-9/">David Billa at SurvivingSurvivor.com: "Episode 9: Go Out With A Bang"

http://www.pleasedeletenow.com/2012/04/12/survivor-one-world-episode-9-go-out-with-a-bang/">Stephen Cosgrove at PleaseDeleteNow.com: "Go Out With a Bang"

http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/blog/show/14064692-survivor-one-world-go-out-with-a-bang John Sciacca at John Sciacca Writes...: "Go Out With A Bang"

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