10 Thoughts On… Survivor: One World – Episode 7 Review

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

1. The men of Salani are complete morons. I know it isn’t much of a stretch when you consider that these are the same guys who agreed to Colton’s plan to go to tribal council even though they had won immunity, but even I cannot believe the sheer stupidity of what they did in tonight’s episode. No matter how dumb you think Tarzan and Leif are, I now classify Troyzan, Jay and Michael beneath them. Sticking with Salani when there are four female members in your alliance is just making it easy for them to win after Manono is taken out. Even if they did agree to that idiotic plan, they should have (at minimum) insisted that a Manono woman (Alicia or Christina) should be the first one to go just to reassure them that it won’t turn into gender wars. There is no excuse for what they did. In the annals of bad Survivor moves, it is right under going to tribal council even after winning immunity, Cochran’s flip and now this.

2. There is a clear Carolina kliq forming between Jay and Chelsea. They are from the same general area and I was waiting for when we would see evidence of this. That being said, I don’t think it is going to have a major influence on the game because when push comes to shove, the women will stick together despite any possible side alliances they have with the men.

3. When this season started, many people talked about how Jonas was getting a winner’s edit. I never saw it and argued vehemently against this opinion. The fact is that Jonas was not a brilliant strategist. In fact, he was anything but. The key to Survivor, is to always make people think that the person you want to eliminate is their best move as well. While his argument to get rid of Mike was a good one (Mike is the strongest male and now in a post-merge situation becomes the biggest threat), when it was clear that Salani wasn’t going to break up, he should have followed suit and turned on Leif. While I think that the men should have stuck together and made more of a move to get Christina to turn, when Jonas became the clear target, he should have flipped the script on a fellow Manono member rather than trying to target an already safe Salani. Jonas’ game didn’t really impress me.

4. On the subject of edits, for the first time, I believe Troyzan might be getting too good of an edit. I don’t think that there is any chance that he can win just because he is being shoved down our throats so much. I could say the same thing about Kim, but there is a subtle difference. Almost all of Kim’s confessionals are about her plans or her strategy. Tarzan continually refers to it being ‘his island’ after challenges and in his interviews. The one thing that I am sure about is that it isn’t. Especially now that the women have an insurmountable upper hand.

5. I don’t know who decided to let Leif go first in the reward challenge, but I actually think it was a smart move as I thought his small frame would allow for him to slide under the bar much faster than Jay. I don’t fault the strategy, I just think Leif didn’t come through.

6. Tarzan is phenomenal casting. Some of the best that I have ever seen on the show. He is wildly unpredictable, very quotable and votes emotionally (as evidenced by his declaration that he was going to vote for Jonas at tribal council), which signaled to Salani that Jonas was a sure bet to go and cemented their decision. People are cast on Survivor, because they are either brilliant strategists (Russell Hantz) or that they are entertaining characters and Tarzan is definitely in the latter category.

7. Kat continues to impress me. She has a solid alliance, doesn’t come off as threatening and almost stole immunity away from Troyzan tonight. I am not sure if it is an active strategy to come off the way that she is, but I definitely see an odd parallel between her game and Philip’s from Redemption Island.

8. Props to Christina and Alicia. Both were on the hot seat last week and were not even options to go this week. I was actually shocked that neither of their names came up although I primarily credit the men’s absolute buffoonery for this.

9. Christina’s only chance to make a move is next week. If another man goes (which is what I expect), then she will just wait it out and vote with the rest of the women until her time comes. She needs to flip immediately.

10. I am shocked as to how much control Kim and Chelsea have and the fact that no one seems to care.

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.