Normally I don’t start at the end, but how can I resist this time? Poor Keith gets voted out after a rough episode and makes his way down to Decision Station (Not a great name, I know. I’ll keep workshopping it). And, well, let’s just say anybody who wasn’t thinking about Chris Traeger was thinking about the wrong thing.
Also, Andy Dwyer for good measure.
Also also, a little Jessica Day for more good measure.
Anyway, back to Keith. He agonizes over whether or not to take the path to a second chance. Really, my guy? I realize his last few days in the game couldn’t have been easy, so he may not have been excited to jump back in. But wouldn’t that also motivate him to take that chance and run with it? Take his chance at redemption? Well, whatever the case may be, we’ll have to wait until next week to see Keith’s decision as the show ended on a rare cliff-hanger.
Extinction Island
Reem looks miserable. I mean, try and tell me this isn’t one of the saddest things you’ve ever seen.
That looks rough. Looking back on this, her voice-over to close the episode makes sense. She says she may have to quit if nobody else shows up.
And that’s it for Extinction Island this week, which makes sense. I’m sure there will be more footage as more people start to inhabit the island.
Manu Beach
Wendy is continuing her crusade against one Kelley Wentworth. She is a wide open book when it comes to her feelings about the returning players. In short, she wants them gone. This is interesting for a couple reasons. One she says in a confessional, “If you can’t do it in two times, you can’t do it.” On the one hand, that is simply factually incorrect, as there are multiple instances of someone winning on their third+ time out. Also, has she never seen Survivor? It’s not nearly as simple or straightforward as that. You could play 9 times and never make the merge but then win on your 10th try. Each season is so different and can be so dependent on the cast that it’s not an exact apples to apples comparison. But I digress, because the more interesting point is this.
Wendy is talking about her goals of eliminating all returning players to a small group. A group that includes David Wright, who is, you guessed it, a returning player. That was…interesting? While I’m not so sure about that decision, I’m thoroughly fascinated by it. What was going through Wendy’s head during all this? I would have loved to see more of that, or at least seen a David confessional touching on that fact.
But even with that sketchiness, Wendy’s conversation seems to have done some good, as Rick and David both agree they want Kelley out. In addition to agreeing on who they want out, they see Wendy as a potential ally. Where Wardog (I like the guy and all, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to writing that out as an actual name) was put off by Wendy refusing to vote against Reem, Rick and David realize how valuable someone with that kind of loyalty could be.
And it’s about this time in the show that the great idol hunt begins. Kelley suggests the idea of an open idol hunt, and honestly, it’s not the worst plan. While obviously she wants to be the one to find it, as long as it’s not Wendy, she’s probably okay, I don’t see anyone playing an idol for Wendy. But if Wendy finds the idol, Kelley is then the most likely target.
Eventually Lauren finds the idol. And luckily for her she is alone when she does. She hides it and decides not to tell anyone, not even Kelley. But that’s not the biggest story to come out of Manu this week. No, the thing I’m most excited about is the bond Rick and David are forming. I am HERE FOR IT. I loved David on his first season and he’s been just as entertaining through two episodes this season. And Rick is already my favorite player of the season. And now these two are going to be working together for the foreseeable future? Sign me the eff up.
Kama Beach
If Keith gets the award for roughest showing on the Manu tribe, that Kama “honor” for this week has to go to Aubry. Being a returning player, she is already somewhat on the outs. She realizes this so she tries to forge the ever-important persona bonds. Unfortunately, her methods leave a lot be desired. To start, she straight up asks her tribemates how they feel about returning players. What does she expect to happen? No matter what their true thoughts are, they’re going to tell her whatever they think will appease her. But what’s worse is what comes next.
Victoria, Julia, and Ron are discussing their conversations with Aubry, where they notice some similarities. And by similarities I mean they discover Aubry was essentially having the exact same conversation with each of them. And then we see another A+ example of Survivor editing, with a montage of Aubry’s conversations, reusing the same general phrases over and again. It’s unfortunately a rough look for Aubry, but an excellent television moment.
And while the Manu tribe is off idol hunting, so too is Kama. And once again we see a character bemoaning the fact that men seem to find idols at a much more frequent rate than women. Here we see Julie, sitting at camp complaining, saying “”Why are only the men looking for idols? Why aren’t I looking?”
There’s an extremely simple and obvious answer to that. You aren’t looking because you’re choosing not to. Get off your butt and go searching! Lauren just found the Manu idol. Kelley and Wendy were both searching at the same time as well. I know it’s cliché, but the only thing that’s stopping you is you. You can’t find an idol if you don’t look for it.
Challenge
This week’s challenge is a physical one. Each tribe swim out to a cage that they climb up and over. Once inside the cage, they untie knots to free a huge – and heavy – snake. They push the snake out of the top of the cage and take it back to shore. Once there they drag it under an obstacle and place it in a cradle. Then they untie a series of knots releasing number tiles, which are used to solve a combination lock which releases rings. To finish, they toss rings onto paddles which raise up letters, spelling immunity.
And the challenge is where Keith’s struggles begin continue. As we learned in the premiere, he is not a strong swimmer, and that is on full display again. He then needs help climbing over the cage, barely helps (doesn’t help at all?) with the snake, and then face plants with the ring toss (figuratively). With all these struggles, Kama won, sending Manu back to Tribal and Kama back to camp with a brand new Survivor fishing kit.
Pre-Tribal
Keith is looking like a viable target after his poor challenge performance, but Kelley still wants to vote out Wendy. She knows Wendy is gunning for her, and she doesn’t see Keith as being a threat to anyone. Keith is able to (temporarily) gain some ground by pledging his everlasting loyalty to Chris, who obviously welcomes that commitment. After this development, Chris changes his mind back to Kelley.
Chris approaches Rick about voting out Kelley. Rick then relays the good news to his pal David. And for a few seconds it looks like Kelley might be on her way out. And you can’t help but think about how wonderful the Extinction Island footage would be with Kelley and Reem. But alas, that dream is cut short, as Wardog (yep, still weird) is insistent on keeping Kelley around. He doesn’t trust her but wants to use her as a shield. And he brings up a solid supporting point. At this point in Survivor’s run, any player has to have the idea of a tribe swap in the back of their mind at nearly all times. Wardog’s thinking is that if there is a tribe swap, having someone like Kelley still in the game will present a bigger, more important target for Kama to take out.
These have to be some of the toughest decisions for players to make. You have valid arguments for voting out either Keith or Kelley, as well as valid arguments for keeping either player. It really comes down to what you value most in the game at any given time. Personally, I think I would tried to keep Keith around. Loyalty like the kind he was promising isn’t always easy to come by.
And even if he doesn’t end up being loyal all the way to the end, you know the chances he turns on you at an earlier point are way lower than that of Kelley doing the same. Plus, I would be betting on a tribe swap before too long. If I felt comfortable in my own spot, I would risk getting rid of a huge threat like Kelley, knowing I would likely be safe at Tribal if we were to keep losing.
Tribal Council
As I led with, Keith is voted out. Not much to discuss there. But what I do want to discuss is how flippant we have become with the term “blindside.” By all accounts, the vote was between Kelley and Keith. And they both knew it; everybody knew it. Even if Keith was confident he was safe, there was no way he was surprised when he was voted out. Now if there had been a secret coalition that successfully conspired to vote out David, THAT would have been a blindside. But when it’s someone who was clearly on the outs? Nope, not a blindside. Can people be surprised by a vote’s result? Sure, but a surprise does not necessarily equal a blindside.
I know, I know, this is dangerously close to “Old man yells at cloud” territory and in the grand scheme of things is not all that important.
But come on. A blindside is supposed to be a major, momentum-shifting moment in the game. All I’m saying is, let’s keep it that way.
