Well, here we are once again, a rare second column before a single Survivor episode. But, thanks to the wacky schedule from the last couple of weeks, I’ve got two columns due before the same episode. Go figure.
But, just like the castaways, we adapt and change, and I am happy to do it.
So, I gave you my prediction for this week’s episode in the last column, but just to summarize, Ulong will continue their downward spiral and IBREHEM will be voted off next.
So, as promised, I now have a “midterm grade report” for all the castaways left in the game. I will run down each person one by one, and then give them a letter grade (A+ down through D-, I don’t feel right giving someone an F, because that should signify them getting voted off, so you will not see a grade lower than D-)
I’m sure there will be come you agree with, and some you don’t. If you have any comments, I’d love to hear them, but here we go with the Survivor Palau Report Card!
I will begin with the easy tribe, the three Ulongs:
BOBBY JON— Bobby Jon has been a likeable guy from the start. He’s been doing a vast majority of the work around the Ulong camp, and has managed to survive numerous Tribal Councils. Props for that. However, he has shown on a few occasions that he is naïve, especially with how he voted early on. He made an alliance with Stephenie, which is good, but did it for the wrong reasons, which is bad. So, BJ isn’t doing GREAT, but he’s also not doing all that bad. HIS GRADE: B
STEPHENIE— Steph is clearly the strongest and most capable player left on Ulong. If she was able to get in with Koror and play, I could see her doing quite well, but unfortunately, she has been on the sinking ship of a tribe. She has carried and/or been a major player in numerous challenges, successfully lied to BJ in order to save her own butt, and has proven on numerous occasions that she is definitely a strategist, seeing as she voted correctly several times. She would have gotten a perfect score if it wasn’t for her tribe overall bringing down her ability to perform individually. HER GRADE: A
IBREHEM— He’s currently on borrowed time. I commented early in the season that he was extremely naïve and probably wouldn’t do well, and now he’s only in because he was granted Immunity by Koror and Bobby Jon wouldn’t vote for anyone but James last week. He is just not playing well at all, but he HAS managed to survive many Tribal Councils somehow. HIS GRADE: D
And, now, the infamous Koror tribe….all eight of them:
TOM— Tom has been a paternal figure and a leader for the Koror tribe, and obviously, it has worked. Koror has been dominating, and I suspect it is in large part because they have a leader and they have team morale, and a lot of that credit should go to Tom. Later in the game, that may hurt him, but we’re only looking at the first half of the game for this report. So, as of right now, there’s really not anything Tom is doing wrong except maybe being a little too open with his power. At the present time, though, that doesn’t look like it will threaten him too much. HIS GRADE: A+
IAN— Same thing as Tom. He has provided the tribe with morale and I firmly believe he is one of the centers, as Tom’s second in command. He’s a very likeable guy with a lot of spirit and a lot of heart, and you can tell just by watching him on TV for an hour a week. Like Tom, this will likely hurt him during the game, but Ian has had a VERY successful first half. HIS GRADE: A+
JANU— Janu has been doing very well for the vast majority of the first half, with a very poor performance last week. I agree with Tom that she will recover, so I don’t see anything especially troublesome in her future, especially since she is in on the foursome of Coby/Janu/Gregg/Jenn. We haven’t seen too much of her other than climbing the tree on day one, getting a seat in the foursome alliance I mentioned, and her breakdown. So, a pretty average performance thus far. HER GRADE: C+
CARYN— Caryn is definitely not performing as well as I had hoped. I definitely had high expectations for her early on, but as soon as week 2, I began to have doubts. It’s not a good thing when the tribe labels you as a “partner” with someone right before that person gets voted off (I am referring, of course, to Willard). It is clear she and Katie do not get along, and she has come across as bossy sometimes when there was no need to. Sadly, Caryn is most likely the next one to go from Koror, so her future looks grim. HER GRADE: C-
KATIE— Katie has been labeled as someone who “goes to everybody,” and seems to be the only one (aside from Caryn, now) without a second person to form a twosome. I also haven’t seen her make any sort of moves that might indicate she has a solid alliance, although we have seen reasons to believe she is tight with Tom and Ian. She has also made some confessionals, especially early on, that I liked because they showed some strategic sense. Her only real problem is her riff with Caryn could put others off if the two fight openly again, and some people have expressed a desire to see her get out (Coby, for instance). So, she’s not doing horribly, but she could do better. HER GRADE: B-
COBY— I can’t believe I’m saying this, but he’s actually doing well. I don’t like him, but he’s doing well, and I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. He didn’t like that Willard was leaving, made a new alliance was Gregg, and yet was smart enough to go with the plan for Willard anyway. So he’s been showing some strong strategic abilities so far, his issues would mainly lie in whether or not his alliance with Gregg is going to end up as solid as he thinks it will. HIS GRADE: A
GREGG— Gregg’s big mistake has been making his alliance with Jenn so obvious. Ever since Rob/Amber, couples are looked at even more as threats than ever. His smart move was to approach Coby for an alliance against the power duo of Tom/Ian….he definitely was smart to approach the right person. He’s playing both sides of the fence, and I don’t see any indications that anyone is catching on. HIS GRADE: B+
JENN— We have not seen much of Jenn at all. All we know is that she is in a strong alliance with Gregg (same as above, bad move making it so obvious) and that she is in the foursome alliance. Other than that, nothing, so her grade will be the average because that’s all I have to evaluate. Hopefully, we’ll see more of her in the future. HER GRADE: C
And that’s it! There is your midterm report card for SURVIVOR: PALAU! It’s been a very enjoyable season so far for me, despite the fact that the same tribe has been going to TC every week. That’s fine. There are some dynamic people out there, some interesting twists have taken place already, the location is awesome, and the challenges have been fresh and exciting. What more can you ask for?
GRADE FOR THE SEASON THUS FAR: A
Let’s hope it keeps up as the season progresses!
“See” you next week!
