1. Tonight’s episode was the best of this Survivor season thus far. People have asked me how I feel about One World and specifically where it ranks among all the seasons of yesteryear. I have been brutually honest about how I think it has been a dud. I felt that way because the guys were so bad this season that the show hasn’t been fun to watch simply because of its incredible predictability. Now that all the non-strategists have been eliminated, the true players can finally work their magic and what we saw tonight was absolutely wonderful. Almost everyone played the game tonight. While Kat was on the losing end of the vote, she was forced to make her first decision after winning the reward challenge and after basically following orders up until this point, it was fascinating to see what she would do. Punish Kim for not taking her last week or reward her simply because of their relationship? Alicia was all over this episode vacillating between voting Kat or Sabrina out. Tarzan dove further under the radar. Sabrina’s humanity came out when she started to question Kat’s decisions (even though Kat rewarded two of Sabrina’s other allies). The whole episode was phenomenal and reminded me of why I dedicated my life to this show.
2. The reason I left out Kim in my first point is because this episode was basically her coronation. Up until this point, I have looked at Kim as being a good player on a season where everyone else is bad. Tonight, I changed my opinion completely. Kim is playing one of the best games of all time and is making a case for the best single performance by a female on any season. I know there are many Parvati and Sandra fans out there, but the level of control that Kim has is honestly unbelievable. She didn’t pick Kat last week and still gets Kat to pick her? You do not need any further evidence of how strong Kim’s social game is. Everyone thinks she is with them. It’s Boston Rob-like and as you all know, there is no higher compliment that I can give. I especially liked her dissing Kat after Kat picked her to go on the reward challenge! She said: “I felt like that was a really selfish decision for Kat not to take Tarzan and Christina, I don’t know how angry they are going to be but I am going to have to do major damage control back at camp.” I found the quote fascinating. Did she mean she would have to make sure that people didn’t want to vote Kat out because she is aligned with her? Or did she mean that she thought that it was bad for her own game to go on the reward. It was also hilariously ironic that Kim said that Kat made a selfish decision when she didn’t take Kat last week after promising her that she would. Fascinating.
3. Continuing on Kim’s brilliance, I loved the scene where she was explaining her rationale to her sister. It was finally some raw and unfiltered insight into where Kim’s head was at. I have had a hard time figuring out who Kim’s true allies are (aside from Chelsea). Her saying that Alicia is delusional about being well-liked and Kat having her own show in a year about how the million dollars ruined her life indicates how she has her finger on the inside pulse (intentional reference) of what her best options are to win. The fact that she was even talking about dragging Alicia and Kat to the end and not Chelsea shows that her only loyalty is to herself and that’s the quality that all of the great players have had. We should just cut her the check now. The only way she loses is if the jury is too bitter but her game is so dominant that I just can’t see it. We also got to see some foreshadowing as it is clear that Kim no longer cares if she is perceived as a threat for winning every immunity challenge. She’s right. It’s not like her tribe can do anything about it because she has manipulated them all so well that they couldn’t vote her out if they wanted to. Expect her to go on a Colby-like immunity run. She has basically taken out anyone who could beat her.
4. I loved how Troyzan tried to look menacing at tribal council while wearing those ridiculous pants.
5. I will never understand why the castaways get so emotional during the family visit. I say that every season, but give me a break. It’s 40 days. Not only have I vacationed longer than that, most of my friends haven’t seen their families in months. The argument that contestants always fire back at me is that I didn’t live through it and that it is “different” when you are trying to survive. I don’t agree. 40 days is 40 days. Who’s with me? If I were playing the game and my dad showed up and I cried like that, he would tell me to stop being ridiculous and I would tell him that he’s totally right. Actually, what I would do is bring a “friend.” Somebody like Michael Phelps or Donovan Bailey (look him up Americans) just so that they could help me win the challenge. I am sure my family would like me winning the money a lot more than lame tears at a challenge.
6. Did anyone else think Tarzan was going to propose (again) when he got down on one knee to greet his wife? Also, how obvious was it that they were going to leave his visit until last.
7. Tarzan’s game is severely underrated. I loved how he referred to Kim as “boss lady.” The fact is that while everyone has talked about how bad a player Tarzan is (including me), he has slowly been pulling the wool over all of our eyes. I believe that Tarzan realized that the men were complete morons. He separated himself away from the sinking ship in a move that I liken to what Vecepia did in Marquesas when Maraamu was in the minority or what Penny tried to do when she bailed on Jake and Sook Jai to join the Chuay Gahn majority on Thailand. Tarzan knows that he isn’t a threat anymore and that his strategy of just being the swing vote in any power struggle might get him to the end. I am a big fan of his, not only from a character perspective but also from a strategic one.
8. The disintegration of Kat’s game was also a beautiful disaster to watch. Kat was in a great position. A solid sub-alliance with Alicia and a steady vote for Kim. I just don’t see where it all went wrong for her. It started with her decision at the reward challenge. To be honest, I actually thought she made the right move by taking Kim and Alicia. Kim is the unchallenged leader. The godfather. And you do not want to piss the godfather off. Alicia was Kat’s #2 ally (or so she thought). Her decisions totally made sense. There is no room for empathy in the game. I believe that her basically asking Kim to lose the immunity challenge is where things started to go downhill and her immaturity became prevalent.
9. Crazy how Christina wasn’t even an option at tribal council right?
10. This season is finally watchable again. Kat talking about how great a blindside would be and then getting blindsided herself is what reality television is all about. Nothing frustrates me more than when Jeff tries to tell us that there was a blindside when the person’s reaction tells us that they already knew. Tonight, Kat truly had no idea. That is what great television is all about.
