All right, given that I’m behind on posting, I’ve decided that I can get away with a duel post on the last two weeks of “Survivor,” which seems daunting now that there are four less castaways since my last post. I apologize if it’s long…if you can’t read it all I understand…I just had a lot to say and it sort of poured out of me this way…and I hope that guilts you into reading it…because I had some damn good thoughts…
One thing that’s really bugging me this season is how many useless women remain while the men have been picked off. Obviously, this says a great deal about men and women, as the men have clearly been more willing to turn on each other and claim alpha male status, while the women have tended to maintain some sense of solidarity. Contrary to all alliances, I feel like the ladies have insisted on staying true to each other no matter what, which explains why there are four men and seven women left on this island. We see this often, so it shouldn’t surprise me, but I guess it bothers me because I see so many women slide by, undeserving, while better players, yes I’m suggesting that many men are better and more useful in this game, get picked off. Then again, if Greek mythology has taught me anything, it’s taught me that people play their strengths. While men are generally physically stronger, women in many cases are more cunning, so more power to them for playing that to their advantage.
Cut to the chase…the first episode bid farewell to Jonathan whose knee was so infected from a previous injury that he needed surgery. Gone. Tough loss. He’s one of those castaways I was never sure if I liked. He was underhanded, but at the end of the day, he was just playing the game. Despite his exit, there was still tribal council this episode, and this time Chet almost, once again, dodged the vote. Tracey, Erik, and Amy hatched a scheme to keep Chet around and knock out Ozzie, easily the strongest player on the team, possibly in the game. I’m always down for a good blindsiding, but I’m sorry…Chet’s been around far longer than he deserved, so I was not sorry to see the guy go. I still lay awake at night wondering what possessed him to think he could handle this game.
Next episode, Kathy quit because she couldn’t feel vibes from her daughter. “I know it sounds crazy,” she said. Yes, it does…quitter. No loss there. After Chet was knocked out, she was probably the weakest player in the game, so it wasn’t nearly as unfortunate as Jonathan’s departure. There was a great deal of debate about who would go home from tribal council this episode, a lot of different scenarios. Ozzie’s name came up. So did Erik’s. So did Tracey’s. Several schemes were shooting around (Cirie of all people, running her mouth), and because I happen to be a pro-Ozzie kind of guy, I was happy to see Tracey bid adieu to her tribemates. It all worked out.
I’m tempted to make one more quick point about this season. I felt like the Fans vs. Favorites concept would dissipate after a few episodes. After all, at this point, they’re all castaways and players in this game now, right? But now. The fans chosen are not typical castaways. They, quite literally, are fans through and through. I’m failing to accept them as players. Erik, for example, is not a person, he is just someone to be starstruck by the favorites. There are two chicks on James’s tribe that I don’t think have said shit all season. There has been no development of these people except for Joel, whose been gone for 3 episodes now. The focus is entirely on the favorites playing this game again, and the fans are playing right into this mold of simply being pawns in a game designed for former castaways to have a second chance. In theory, the concept is cool, but in practice, it’s just this strange barrier standing between these people. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t have integrated as players in this game by this point, but they haven’t. Honestly, I’m waiting for the merge, and then I want these fans to get their shit together and start cracking skulls…show me that they can be winners. Hatch a scheme. Show us some fireworks. Take down their idols. Become players and not spectators.
Or maybe the producers made it this way. Maybe they chose the people who would literally remain fans throughout this whole game and never pick it up and start playing. Maybe I should lose my idealistic vision of this show as legitimate reality TV because of the strange divide that still exists in this show when they should all be accepted as players. I hope I don’t have to. I hope they prove me wrong.
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