Another 'Survivor' blindsiding
What a lot of drama there's been on this season of Survivor. Thursday's episode was no exception.
James became the third person to leave this season without being voted off, thanks to an infection in his finger that could have threatened his finger, if not his entire hand, if he didn't get it taken care of. (And how dramatic was it when he showed up at tribal council to take his seat on the jury carting an IV stand pumping him full of antibiotics?)
The whole episode was just wacky. Alexis took a middle-of-the-night tumble and hurt her leg. Then, the contestants had a reward challenge that was perfect for this mean-girls group. It was the typical one where everyone answers questions about the tribe in secret and then they have to guess how the majority answered. Whoever answered correctly had to hack at the rope by a little clay statue of each contestant -- three hacks at your rope, and you were out (with a vengeance -- the wooden stake crushed the heads violently). Those challenges always reveal who is at the top and the bottom of the totem pole, and it became pretty obvious that Amanda didn't have a lot of standing with the other women.
Alexis won reward and chose Cirie and Natalie (oh yeah, and their loved ones, who showed up at the beginning of the challenge) to go with her. Amanda volunteered to be the one sent to Exile Island, where they'd been told the idol had been rehidden.
Immediately after the challenge, James was taken away to the hospital. In the meantime, Amanda searched and searched and found all the clues to the idol, including the final one, which said the idol was buried in the sand under the team flag back on her tribe's beach. And then, she got really smart. Upon returning to camp, she told everyone she just wanted them to know she did not have the idol and she emptied her bag in front of them.
In the meantime everyone agreed that Erik was going home unless he won immunity. Then he did, and the tide started to turn against Amanda. Everyone was pretty open with her about the fact that she was getting voted out, and she played it well. She told Parvati about the idol and got a little help in distracting the rest of the tribe while she dug for it, but viewers were still in the dark as tribal council started.
And at tribal council, Amanda was so convincing about being sad that she was going home that I almost believed she hadn't found the hidden idol, even though the chances of that were skinny. Votes were cast, and Jeff asked if anyone had the idol to play. The looks on people's faces when Amanda stood up to play the idol were absolutely priceless. (Adding that she had not lied to them because she hadn't had the idol when she returned to the beach didn't seem to help much.) The jury's faces were even funnier.
So Jeff pulled out the votes -- four for Amanda, none of which counted, and two for Alexis, which meant she was ousted, and blindsided.
One favorite moment: At the reward challenge, when Erik's brother showed up, Erik told him, "Look, there's Jeff Probst! He's just standing there!" Too funny.
What did you think of the show?
The season's definitely gotten better the past few weeks, in my opinion.
Comments
Amanda played it pretty well, but she should have shut up about ten seconds sooner at TC. Plus, swinging the thing and singing was just salt in the wound. This is the sort of thing that's going to save Erik's tail in the end, because now there's a grudge match on.
Speaking of Erik, Probst's "You're a freak" comment to Erik was just gold.
I'd love to play poker with Eliza sometime. I'd win a bazillion dollars from her.
SKK: Heh, isn't Eliza supposed to be a lawyer? Seems like the overwrought facial expressions could bite you in court!
Posted by: Claude | May 3, 2008 12:40 PM
Survivor hasn't been this "shocking" in a long time!
Posted by: ncbeth | May 4, 2008 12:51 PM
This was the best blindside since Hatch got it in the All-Star show. Better than James getting the ax while holding, but not playing, TWO idols in China.
Hell, this may have been the best Tribal Council ever.
So, does Cirie flip back and side with Amanda and Pavarti the rest of the way? Can Pavarti be trusted? Is Erik the biggest dork ever to make it this far in any Survivor?
Questions, questions, questions...
Posted by: Bucky | May 4, 2008 11:12 PM
Cirie is playing the hell out of this game. In the last couple of weeks she's ensured that nobody looks at her for eliminations that were basically her idea. If she goes to FTC she could be bulletproof.
Natalie isn't getting enough credit for the stuff she's engineering, either. I'm surprised that she wasn't taken out instead of Alexis. Unless people are starting to think about who they'd like to go against at FTC, in which case it makes a little sense.
SKK: I think, too, that it was easy to boot Alexis because if she tried to be bitter about the choice, they can just shrug and point to her injury as the reason.
Posted by: Claude | May 6, 2008 11:44 AM