10 Thoughts On… Survivor: One World – Episode 11 Review

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

1. The chopping reward challenge is my favorite challenge in the game of Survivor. A very simple game in concept truly reveals where everybody stands in the game. The challenge in tonight’s episode was particularly revealing primarily for two reasons. The first is that it drew even further attention to how well-liked Kim is in the game. This is astounding to me. In no other season has a player dominated so thoroughly and their control has completely gone unnoticed. If it wasn’t for Troyzan, I really believe we wouldn’t have a show as he seems to be the only one paying attention to how much control Kim has. If you compare Kim’s game to Boston Rob’s on Redemption Island, there are many similarities but the biggest difference is how people knew Rob was in control and just didn’t do anything about it. On this season, it’s a little bit of that, but more of the idea that they like Kim so much that they don’t care if she wins or not. The other thing that the reward challenge indicated is the first weakness in Kim’s game. So far, she has played perfectly but not throwing the challenge was a major mistake. Once again, she salvages it though because of her ability to realize the screw-up. I do not expect her to falter again. Whoa, that was a pretty long first point.

2. I haven’t seen Sabrina play the game much this season. Aside from giving Colton the hidden idol that she found (which, if we are being fair, any rational Survivor player would have also done), she has been basically a non-existent supporting vote in Kim’s plan to take over the (one) world. This was a standout episode for Sabrina because of the beautiful way she played Troyzan and Christina after the reward challenge. I have always wondered why more players didn’t use the strategy of teasing a flip but not actually doing it to snuff out other moles. If Cochran had done that last year, we might have been singing his praises instead of chastising him for making the worst move in Survivor history. While it makes sense for other players to listen to Troyzan, Sabrina is definitely in Kim’s endgame (although the preview made me second-guess that) and as a result, staying pat and placating Troy is the best play for her. It was, however, a bad play for her to tell Christina about how they were splitting the vote against her.

3. We must applaud the casting team this season. Tarzan, Kat, Alicia, Colton, and Troyzan are great television characters and collectively more memorable than 75% of last season’s cast. Although they picked the dumbest group of guys to play the game that I have seen (save for the dudes on Vanuatu), the characters make up for it.

4. The pig scene got old after about 10 seconds.

5. We cannot forget Kim’s athleticism. Given who is left in the game, Kim has the ability to win every remaining immunity challenge (especially now that Troyzan is gone). The only person who could beat her is Chelsea and that is her F2 partner so to say she is sitting pretty would be an understatement both literally and figuratively. It was pretty funny when Jeff said that she was “making quick work on her knees.”

6. Chelsea oiling herself up in the immunity challenge has made me dedicating the last 12 years of my life to Survivor completely worth it.

7. The editing in this episode was spectacular. Even though Troyzan should have been a lock to go after he lost the immunity challenge, the idea that his extra vote could ruin the women’s plan to split made the episode much more compelling than it actually was. Fantastic idea by the editors and producers to cut it that way.

8. I am not sure how I feel about the way the women celebrated after Troyzan lost the challenge. On the one hand, it disgusted me. On the other hand, he kind of deserved it after acting like an ass after last week’s challenge.

9. What did you think of Alicia comparing Christina to a student in her special ed class?

10. WHY ISN’T CHRISTINA FLIPPING?! She did tonight but now it is too late. She doesn’t have the votes.

Sorry I missed last week’s article. I was at Reality Rally in Temecula where I hosted a reality panel discussion that included two-time Survivor winner Sandra Diaz-Twine and the first Survivor winner Richard Hatch. Corinne Kaplan from Survivor Gabon was also there.

Also, later this evening, I will be discussing tonight’s episode of Survivor: One World with Whitney Duncan from last season on The Murtz Show at 9:30 PM Pacific time. Feel free to join us HERE to ask her your questions.

See you next week!

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.