Wow!
SURVIVOR: PALAU kicked off last week with quite a bang, wouldn’t you agree? The premiere was definitely intense, and very fast.
Actually, it was a little too fast for my liking. I would have especially liked to see some more footage of the castaways’ first day all on one beach, because it would have helped us get to know Jonathan and Wanda a little better before they were eliminated.
That was the only part that bugged me about the premiere: it was all one big flash—Wanda is singing on the way in, then she’s singing on the way out. It didn’t feel like there was an in-between period at all. It was the same thing with Jonathan. One minute, he’s jumping off the boat with Stephenie to be the first to get to the beach, and the next, he’s walking towards the boat that will take him home.
Now, that of course brings up the big twist. We all, myself included, assumed when the Early Show cast announcement was made that it was going to be one big tribe competing for individual Immunity. By the time the premiere came, of course, I had figured out that wasn’t plausible (and then when I saw that cramped Tribal Council set, I was glad they hadn’t tried to cram 20 people in there). Still, that was the assumption I had made on what the “big twist” was we were promised.
The real twist blew me away. Eliminate two people without even giving them a chance to compete? Cruel. Seriously, that’s the only way to describe it. Cruel. To make it that far, and not even get to compete in one challenge or even attend a Tribal Council? That has to suck.
However, do I think the twist was unfair? No. Cruel, yes. Unfair, no. The question of fairness is not a question at all in SURVIVOR, and it has always boggled my mind when the topic has come up. Survivor is not fair, life is not fair. And the whole premise of Survivor is that these people are building their own little world that is a microcosm of our society.
Somewhere along the way, it also became a TV show. They’re making TV. They’re not doing it by staging the challenges and telling people who to vote off, but they are making unique twists so that viewers will be intrigued. That’s one of the things that makes Survivor so powerful after 10 seasons (the premiere had the most viewers in any non-post-Superbowl Survivor premiere since Africa). What other reality show can say that?
Mark Burnett said it best in an interview I read before the premiere last week. This is HIS show. It doesn’t belong to the contestants. It belongs to HIM, and he can do whatever he wants.
Now, under the circumstances, and knowing that the question of fairness does not come into play at all in this game, they are never completely unreasonable with the twists they produce. While it sucks for Jonathan and Wanda, they didn’t just go ahead and do this tribal selection right on day 1.
No, they gave the castaways 24 hours to get to know each other. They were all interacting with each other for 24 hours, even though we only got to see 20 minutes of it. And the 20 minutes we did see painted a pretty clear picture of why they didn’t get chosen for tribes if you were paying attention.
Let me start with Jonathan. Why did he lose the game? Why wasn’t he chosen for a tribe? Well, if you happened to tape it, go back and re-watch the premiere. It was evident that he was a main workhorse during the first 24 hours. According to some castaway’s comments (I especially heard Caryn’s) he was working the hardest.
Okay, so how does that make him unworthy for a tribe? Well, read between the lines. If he was working so hard, did he socialize with people? You can never forget that first and foremost, this is a social game. And if you don’t try and make bonds with people right away, you’re going to find yourself hurting later.
Then you have Coby (who annoys me already, by the way…why, I don’t really know), who understood that everyone was going crazy and was figuring on a Tribal Council possibly even that first night. So, he started campaigning for votes, and Jonathan just happened to be his target, most likely for the combination of his audacity to jump off the boat first and what I just talked about him working so hard.
So, Coby is busy spreading through the tribe that Jonathan has to be the first out. And everyone else is thinking “Cool! I don’t care who goes as long as it isn’t me! Besides, he hasn’t really tried to bond with any of us yet and he DID jump off the boat first, which was kind of bold…..”
So, instantly, anti-Jonathan propaganda was going through the group, so when it came time for tribal selections, no one was going to pick him. Poor Jonathan never even stood a chance. His death warrant was signed within the first two hours of his stay on the island.
And how about Wanda? Poor, dear old Wanda. I fell in love with her during just those 20 minutes we got to watch her, and I hate to admit it, but I was absolutely devastated when they didn’t choose her for a tribe and she had to go.
Now, I know a lot of people are wondering what kind of medication I take, because I’ve heard a lot of talk since the premiere along the lines of “I knew as soon as she got up and started singing that she was done for.”
I enjoyed her songs. She had a lot of spirit and a lot of enthusiasm. She would have brought a lot of energy to a tribe, especially after a few days when hunger and loneliness and fatigue starts to set in. Personally, I think Ibrehem made a very poor choice. I know why he chose Angie…..she definitely looked more athletic than Wanda because of age, and I don’t know how many people noticed his comments right before the challenge: he said that as much as people don’t want to say it, youth and athleticism plays a strong hand in the game. So that gave me a pretty clear indication of where he stands, and gives me even further clarification as to why, when the moment came, he chose Angie over Wanda.
In the long run, as I said, it was a bad move. Angie seems awfully depressed and gloomy because she’s an “outcast.” Wanda had spirit, and Angie was whining the whole episode. Who would YOU have chosen?
I really don’t agree with the notion that Wanda wasn’t chosen because she annoyed people with her singing. That’s what most people think, and that’s what the editing made us believe. Wanda was not chosen because she was one of the older ones. Notice that the two oldest castaways, Wanda and Willard, were in the last group of four. We discussed this last week, this is a very young cast, and for the most part, they chose based on their youth and getting rid of the oldest members.
So, Wanda was left in the dust because she was older, not because she sang a lot. But, wait a minute, you say, Willard was chosen! So why not Wanda?
Well, let’s look at that for a minute. Just in case you forgot, let me clue you in as to what the choices were. For the men, it was between Willard and Jonathan. Caryn was the one who had to choose. It honestly doesn’t surprise me that she chose Willard. First of all, she is one of the older ones, being in her forties, and she was probably thinking along the lines of making sure she wasn’t the oldest in her tribe. She’s smart if she was thinking that. But, furthermore, if you look at Coby’s initial plotting, Caryn was in the first group of people we saw him speaking to about getting rid of Jonathan. Caryn was the one Coby chose over his dear, fellow-outcast friend, Angie. Caryn knew that the original plan was to get rid of Jonathan, so she just followed through.
Now, for the females, it was between Angie and Wanda. I already covered this one….Ibrehem made the choice, and his mind is obviously fixated on youth and athleticism, so poor Wanda got left in the dust and he chose Angie. Smart? No, because the attitude difference between the two is striking.
So, when you step back and look at the bigger picture, there were reasons why these two were eliminated. It wasn’t completely, 100% random. I find it sad that a lot of people don’t look at the bigger picture before they pass judgments about twists in this game. But that’s okay, because that’s what columnists are here for. And you thought this column was just random babbling. ;) Then again, maybe you still do………..
So, Wanda leaving was depressing for me, but overall, I loved this premiere. This is clearly a dynamic cast. The first challenge was interesting to watch, and I love how choices were added to the challenge and camp living situation. Jeff Probst had hinted at this before the premiere, that there would be more choices this time, with more consequences. I love the whole concept.
I love that Koror went with the new beach, and I had a feeling as soon as Jeff gave them the choice that the new beach was going to suck. The premiere for next week only enhanced my feeling.
Ulong, as a tribe, is highly dysfunctional. They have the youth and the strength, but how many times has that proven inept in Survivor history? They need to work as a team, and if they don’t, they’re pretty much done for. Unfortunately, I don’t see them working together as a team. It doesn’t really stretch my imagination too thin to picture them becoming the next Maraamu, Morgan, or Sook-Jai. I especially see a strong parallel with the Sook-Jai tribe because of the whole self-destruct concept.
The next two challenges this week will give me a firmer idea on how these tribes will function for the long haul, but as I see it now, Koror can easily become the dominant tribe in this game.
Now, I have some commentary on just a few of the players before we wrap up:
CARYN– She seems like such a nice lady, and she also seems like she has a good head on her shoulders. She made a wise move in picking Willard over Jonathan, for the reasons we discussed above. I see her going very far in this game, easily Final Five or Final Four.
WILLARD– He survived the elimination round at the beginning by the skin of his teeth, thanks to Caryn. However, don’t let that fool you into thinking that this guy isn’t sharp. Did you notice his first confessional? The first time we see a Willard confessional, he is commenting that there is no indication that they are one tribe, because the banner just said “Survivor: Palau” and did not have a tribe name. Things like that, however small, are clear indicators as to the types of players these people are. Willard did not jump to any conclusions, and I see him in the Final Four easily.
KATIE—Last week, she was my initial pick as the winner, and the premiere episode did absolutely nothing to deter me from that course. I will stick with her as my prediction until she is either voted out or I am proven right and she actually wins. I need some vindication here!
IAN is another of my initial favorites. He is the likeable kind of guy I thought he would be from pre-analysis, but I also think he is a player. Right after the tribes were selected, he had a confessional where he said he was thrilled with the new tribe and wanted some of the older and wiser people anyway. Smart, because history has shown that the older and wiser often do better at the strategic thinking and at gelling as a tribe during the first half of the game. He didn’t get caught up in youthful ideals, he’s here to play the game.
Now, COBY is not one of my favorites so far by any means. He just annoys me, and I’d love to see him go because he got too much airtime. However, I think he deserves an honorable mention right now as a player…not as a favorite, but as a player. He played it smart this week in terms of forging relationships and alliances with people right away. That’s why he got picked for a tribe and Jonathan didn’t.
IBREHEM had a poor showing this week. He did not, in my opinion, get this game off to a strong start at all. First, he chooses Angie over Wanda just based on youth and athleticism, rather than on who can bring the most spirit to the camp. Then he goes and makes the assumption in his confessional that Ulong’s youth was going to be a major factor in helping them win the challenge. Then, to top it all off, he is left out in the dust (along with Bobby Jon) that Jolanda was going instead of Angie, and found himself on the wrong side of the vote at Tribal Council. Hopefully he’ll have a stronger showing this week, but to me, he seems too naïve to be able to make it in this game.
I also need to give some advice to ANGIE, because she also annoyed me this episode. She is far too whiny and self-pitying. She needs to get her head out of her butt and start playing the game. She got lucky this time around that Jolanda was a little too aggressive, but I have a feeling Ulong is going to have several more Tribal Councils in the near future. Angie’s name came up as a strong contender for elimination, and unless she experiences a complete turnaround, it’s bound to happen again.
Well, that’s all I really have to say for this week! I’m anticipating an exciting season!
“See” you next week!
