In all sense of reality, this could be forever considered the season without a merge.
Yes, we are in the individual phase of the game now, and Coby is the first member of the Jury right where the Jury always starts its formation.
However, I find it interesting to note that the word “merge” was never officially used. The only time in the entire hour I heard the word used was when Stephenie opened her Tree Mail at Ulong and whispered to herself gratefully “It’s a merge.” (It didn’t say it on the Tree Mail, either).
The Mail didn’t use it. Jeff didn’t use it. No new buffs were distributed. No new name was chosen. They are Koror. So what took place last week? You need to go no further than the Tree Mail note that was pulled out of the black jar Stephenie brought to Koror: They were getting a new member.
The Koror tribe simply added a member. They conquered Ulong, and will now add a member and compete as individuals. The word “conquered” is the key. Prior to the premiere of the season, Jeff Probst was talking about how Palau was a site of WWII battles and wreckage is littered everywhere, so therefore serves as a backdrop to the season; both in Tribal Councils and in challenges. The challenges, Jeff told us, would be more physical. He told us that the game would be a “war” between the tribes and individuals out there.
So Koror and Ulong have been at “war” with each other, and Koror came out on top. They keep their buffs, their name, and all their members, save one. So, it’s pretty hard to make the argument that there was an official merge. Rather than a merge, it was a conquering, which I believe is something quite different.
Now, I want to talk about Coby for a moment. What happened to cause his downfall? I’ve been spending the last few weeks watching Coby’s breakdown very carefully, because even though I didn’t like him from the first minute of the show, I knew that I couldn’t downplay his power as a strategist based on how well he handled that first day as one big group of 20.
A strong beginning. A pathetic ending. I don’t know what he was thinking going around complaining about everyone and going out of his way to annoy Katie by very publicly calling Stephenie over for a chat.
Very simply, Coby ultimately suffered from boredom. After gushing over how grateful he was to be on the winning tribe a couple weeks ago, it was, ironically, what caused his ultimate downfall. Being on the winning tribe for so long, it allowed him to become increasingly frustrated with the others, lose his strategic sense, and ultimately start burning bridge after bridge during his final days to make some point known only to him.
“Wait a minute,” you say, “no one else has been having this kind of breakdown.” Well, Coby is obviously not a very strong individual. His sob story speech a couple weeks ago is the clear indicator of that; he is just the type of person who clearly gets annoyed easily. It cost him the game. If Koror has lost some challenges, he probably would not have been the next to go. But having been sitting there stewing over what annoyed him about the others for days and not being able to do anything about it bothered him so much that when he could do something about it, he didn’t go about it very intelligently.
Okay, so what’s next? Coby has been sent to the Jury, and whether it was officially considered a merge or not, Jeff said it best at the end of Tribal Council: they are no longer tribes competing against each other, they are individuals competing against one another for a million dollars.
This is the point where the game starts to get crazy, and anyone can win. Stephenie is not out of this by any means of the word. She made it through the first vote, and very quickly, people are going to start adapting to the concept of the individual game, especially this group. I’ve said it a million times, this is a savvy group of players, and while Coby obviously lost his strategic sense during his time on the island, no one else (with the exception of Janu) seem to be in that same boat.
Right now, I see the power being the foursome of Tom, Ian, Katie, and Stephenie. The other foursome of Coby, Janu, Gregg, and Jenn has clearly fallen apart, what with Coby gone and Janu very possibly going this week. Gregg and Jenn are a “couple,” and Tom and Ian have both already professed their nervousness for the power of the couple.
So who goes next? Janu. Janu is too sick to win Immunity, and according to the preview, she is going to speak out to the tribe against something she dislikes. That is going to turn the tribe off even more to her, and they will slate her as the next one to go and join Coby on the Jury.
After that, we’ll just have to see. I’ll be back next week, of course, with a lot more thoughts on that.
BOOT PICK FOR EPISODE 10: Janu
“See” you next week!
