Survivor – It All Depends on the Pin-Up Girl

CBS

(Season 17, Episode 7)

Well, tonight Jeff threw the tribes for a loop by sending both to Tribal Council. I think it’s because the folks behind the scenes realized that the only way Kota was going to go to Tribal Council again was if the show forced them to. Hell, when they switched to individual immunity in the challenge leading up to these Councils, a Kota member won that, too.

It was so weird seeing all those faces of Kota at Tribal Council. I found myself asking, “Who the hell are these people?” In Survivor, tribes tend to trim the fat early on and by the seventh episode things start to get tense because it’s time to start eliminating the good players. Kota hasn’t had to do any of that so players who normally would have gotten the boot weeks ago are still lingering at the fringes. If we merge soon, this could make for an interesting unified tribe.

Maybe I’m a bit old school, but I like intro sequences for shows, and Survivor always had a good one. I enjoyed how they had the same basic musical theme, but added elements from the region of the world they were in to make each one unique. Tonight, that intro got squeezed down to the barest of minimums. Hopefully it was so we could squeeze two Tribal Councils in and not the beginning of the end of the intro. Can you believe I just gave a whole paragraph to that?

• Why does Randy think Bob’s annoying? Bob rocks!
• Susie, on the other hand, shoved her foot halfway down her throat by telling Corinne, “Oh, I was going to vote for you.” What? Who admits that? Does she know this is a game?
• Ironically, Randy thinks Susie is crazy, which is probably true, but Randy is a complete and total lunatic.
• Five times in a row now Sugar has been sent to the “Sugar Shack” on Exile Island. She’s turning into one of my favorite competitors, and not because of her horrible showing at the Reward Challenge, but because of her strategic play. She’s not the first to play up the “dumb blonde” angle, but she’s playing it well.

Tribal Councils

Well, I was pleased to see Fang make an honest-to-God strategic move this time around getting rid of Ace. Sugar then positions herself brilliantly moving toward a merge. As for Kota, it almost didn’t matter who they got rid of. Ultimately, it was Dan, which I can live with because I don’t want to watch him trying to validate himself constantly. And I get to keep rooting for the improbably long run of Susie on this show. Remember when she was “next to go” after Gillian, who got eliminated sometime in ’98, I think.

It looks like we’re finally getting to the merge next week, with Randy setting himself up as the “King of Gabon.” Randy is a hoot, probably one of the more entertaining players to have been on the show, but he is certifiable. But with Ace gone, he may just be the “King of Gabon.” And Susie and Bob made it to the merge! Amazing, but unless they make a groundbreaking alliance, this won’t last. There’s a lot of youngsters still running around.

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Oct 30, 2008 @ 22:14 EST5EDT