Well, things certainly got underway fairly quickly on this week’s Survivor. No mucking about with any pre-challenge nonsense as the producers had a major twist up their sleeve right before the reward challenge — One World is no more, men vs women is out the door, there are new Manono and Salani tribes (can’t the producers stick with a premise at least until the merge?). Which really screwed up the original tribes’ games because the completely stupid move by the men last week gave the women a new sense of solidarity, and Colton knew he had total control of the men. But now the game has sort of re-set and both tribes seemed to be back to square one … seemed. It is curious though that the twist came during a week when both tribes had even numbers. I know these things are planned in advance, but having both tribes at seven apiece certainly worked well when it came to the twist and challenges.
Of course, the best part of the big switcheroo was that the new Salani tribe got to keep four of the five original women’s alliance, and they also got the best group of men in Jay, Michael and Troy. Meanwhile, Colton has Tarzan, Jonas, Leif, Christina, Alicia and Monica. So what does he do? Immediately aligns himself with Alicia and targets Monica, calling her the head of the snake of the women’s tribe. Hey Mastermind … you just aligned yourself with the actual snake who will do anything to keep herself in the game, including whittling down her former tribe’s numbers, and it won’t be long before she comes after you.
Colton, in his winning way, branded his new tribe a “bunch of idiots,” and he’s right. I still don’t know why they are running scared from him … and I don’t know how they can even keep up with his various scenarios when it comes to voting. He tells one person to vote one way, then he tells another to vote for someone else, then those people are together and he has to make sure the one person is still unaware of the lie and the others have to play along. By the time they got to Tribal … yes, the new Salani tribe easily beat the misfits at both reward and immunity challenges (and it seems like Monica was the only Manono member actually trying to win) … I wasn’t sure who knew what and which plan was going to happen. Of course, everyone followed Colton’s lead again and voted out the strongest member of the tribe — Monica — over the dithering Tarzan. The guy can hardly remember his tribe mates’ names for Pete’s sake, and he’s terrible in physical challenges. Even Leif gave him a shaming at the immunity challenge with his own height disadvantage, and Colton even managed to get physical. But how long is it going to take the men to turn on Colton and blindside him? He certainly could have gone far in the game with his original tribe, but I’m sure the guys who had targets on their backs are telling the Salani women all of Colton’s secrets, including the fact that he has a hidden immunity idol, and they will hopefully use that to their advantage come the merge. On the other hand, maybe you want to keep him around to make some enemies on the jury so you can sit next to him at the final Tribal Council. What would you do?
Other notable moments from this week:
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Mar 14, 2012 @ 22:15 EST5EDT
I just don’t understand Colton’s logic. You need numbers at merge, which means you have to win challenges. It doesn’t make any sense to vote off the ONLY successful competitor in the tribe. Alicia is an idiot. My hope is that logical Christina will come up with a master plan to get Colton out. Her face was that of absolute shock during tribal.
*POST AUTHOR*
Unfortunately, the fact that Christina was just as blindsided as Monica doesn’t bode well for her longevity in the game. She’s going to have to convince the rest of the misfit toys that she’s just as much an outsider in the game that they are, and that Alicia is just as big a threat to their advancement in the game as Colton is, and that they have to vote Alicia out before Colton because she’s still got a four-person alliance waiting for her at the merge. Of course, that would require people to actually think and we know that’s not gonna happen. And it seems that a lot will hinge on who is medically evacuated on the next episode.
I’m bummed. Liked Monica a lot (being a Bucs/Gator fan). Hope she gets called back for another season.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yep, she seemed to be the smartest player in the game, and physically capable as well. So, of course, she had to go. Drives me crazy!
Colton’s logic is pretty clear. He keeps the bottomfeeders around to worship him. I don’t think that’s stupid at all. It’s Coach’s strategy sans the ridiculous religion angle.
I mean Colton’s an asshole and his minions are despicable morons but as long as they stick together they can survive until the merge and then get voted off one after the other.
Which means we can basically skip the next six episodes and tune back in when the stronger tribe has picked everyone including Colton off.
Another worthless season.
It was Russell Hantz’s strategy too, right down to being a jerk and bully to people’s faces.
The thing that might not make the season useless is that the Greek Gods tribe are basically the Heroes of the Heroes vs. Villains season, except that this time they might win out. At least we get to see something new if that happens. If the challenges conspire to bring Colton’s gang of misfits to the end, then somebody completely unworthy wins – but again, it’s hard to know who’s worthy at this point. Nobody’s shown me too much yet.
*POST AUTHOR*
And that strategy worked so well for Russell … every time.
They kicked off the one person this week that I think should have gone to the end. I would like to see Sabrina go to the finals as well, and maybe Kim. None of Colton’s “bunch of idiots” deserves to go to the end unless someone just doesn’t feel that they need to fight to win, so of course you have to take Colton or one of the coattail riders that no one would vote for to secure your win. Mike proved himself strong in challenges, but neither he nor Jay have shown much else in the way of game play yet, and if their tribe loses, the four woman alliance will pick them off before the merge if they can.
*POST AUTHOR*
Colton’s survival post-merge is slim, at least on paper … and if anyone was playing with a lick of sense (which so far, they have not). The women know that Sabrina had to give Colton the hidden immunity idol, so first thing they need to do at the merge is convince him that he’s “one of the girls” then totally blindside him at Tribal to take him out (and hopefully the men have shared some information about Colton with their new tribe mates). I have little faith that his own tribe would pull such a coup since they didn’t have the balls to do it when he dragged them to Tribal. Yes, they think they’re safe under his leadership, but by voting out all of the players that could succeed for the tribe in physical challenges and keep them intact (Monica was the only one who could figure out how to do the challenge on the plank with the women, and she was the only one to score a point this week for her tribe … so vote her out!), they will have to start turning on each other way before they ever get to the merge. Although with the tease of another medical evacuation in the next episode, things could be turned upside-down depending on who is taken out of the game. Maybe Alicia or Christina will be able to talk to their tribe mates privately, tell them they know Colton has the immunity idol and convince them that a blindside will be the only way to ensure they all get further in the game.
Oh, who am I kidding? That’ll never happen.