10 Thoughts On… Survivor: One World – Episode 8 Review

10 Thoughts, Reviews, Top Story

1. Tonight’s vote didn’t surprise me. Michael was a dead man walking and to be honest, he should actually be quite proud of himself for how far he got. He somehow managed to evade the walk of shame despite his initial cohorts (Matt and Bill) being unceremoniously dumped. He actually got much further than I initially thought but after Jonas left last week, he didn’t have any chance of winning. The only question was whether the girls would put him out of his misery now, or wait until ‘New Salani’ had the majority (in both cases, the “majority” = the women) but in the grand scheme of things it made no difference. He was never going to win.

2. I am proud of myself for seeing the bond between Chelsea and Jay. I referred to it last week and we got a deeper examination of their friendship this week. The fact is that despite what the editors made us believe for the majority of the episode, Jay was in on the plan to eliminate Mike judging by the fact that he voted for him. In fact, Jay’s vote was the most interesting aspect of the episode to me. As I mentioned in the first point, Jay and Mike have been in an alliance since Day 1. The fact that he turned on him (whether by choice or by necessity given the numerical superiority enjoyed by the women), shows you how much he trusts Chelsea.

3. Speaking of Chelsea, this was the first episode that we really got to see her and what she is thinking. I know that people will probably rip on her about asking Jay to vote for Mike in front of Alicia and Christina but I don’t think it really mattered at that point. As soon as Jonas left, I am sure that the women quickly realized that their best move is to stay together and eliminate the strong guys. Chelsea isn’t dumb. She probably questioned Jay in front of Alicia and Christina to make the girls feel more comfortable about being back “in.” I am not basing this on anything other than my own speculation.

4. The scene between Tarzan and Chelsea (and their feud in general) was hilarious. The fact that Tarzan thought Chelsea didn’t like him because he is a plastic surgeon and that she might have had a bad experience with one is so good, you’d be forgiven if you thought it was scripted.

5. How great is Christina? While she keeps getting stones thrown at her in the game (eerily reminiscent to Dayana on Celebrity Apprentice), she has managed to avoid them and make herself the most important vote in the game. In the reward challenge, Leif was getting on her about not helping carry the crate and running ahead of her team but by doing this, she was able to survey the puzzle and know where to the pieces as soon as her team brought them to her. Very calculating and confident. I am a fan.

6. I don’t care what you think about Leif. His nonsensical reaction to winning the 7Up reward was so annoying, he deserved to be told off. I am glad Chelsea didn’t hide her reaction because it was totally too much.

7. The fall of Troyzan is coming. I knew that his little quips and barbs about it being ‘his island’ would catch up with him at some point and now we can finally see it. Telling Jeff that he would see immunity idol “soon” was cocky and brash and I believe this will catch up with him

8. Kim handled tonight’s scrambling absolutely perfectly. She did the blindside, got Christina and Alicia to throw their votes to Tarzan (I presume) to allude suspicion and got Jay to vote against his best friend in the game. Amazing.

9. I thought that this episode was kind of boring and, unfortunately, a sign of things to come as it is now just semantics until Troyzan, Tarzan and Jay leave the game. What did you think?

10. Producers, if you’re reading this… please no more puzzle challenges. I am sure the contestants are sick of playing them and I am sick of watching them. How about innovative memory challenges or ‘majority rules’ like they do on Big Brother.

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.