Survivor – Blindsides are fun. Touché!

Did the women finally do something right this week on Survivor? I think for the first time in a few weeks, an episode really exceeded its expectations because the players’ standing within the tribe shifted dramatically from challenge to challenge to Tribal Council. We also got the usual visitation by family members that always tugs at the heart, but that challenge, and the reward and choices that came with it, certainly contributed a great deal to the final results at Tribal.

Early in the game, most of the women seemed to be focused on Sabrina as a real threat, not because of her skills in challenges (her stamina is questionable after she was the first one out in the immunity challenge) but because of her eloquence. Would you want to keep a weak physical player in the game if she could sweet talk the jury into handing her a million dollars? I don’t know, I think it’s a little alarmist because the jury should be smart enough to look at someone’s game play as well, and Sabrina really hasn’t proven much except that she smartly aligned herself with some strong players.

Sabrina’s fate seemed certain after Kat (and her cousin) won the immunity challenge — which Sabrina and her brother barely started — and took Kim (who didn’t pick Kat last week to go on reward) and her sister, and Alicia (who did go with Kim on the reward last week) and her sister because she felt they would be the most fun to hang out with and eat and get drunk. Basically, she wanted to party instead of make strategic choices. Those left behind were none to pleased, but not because she didn’t pick other women, but because she didn’t pick Tarzan and his wife (they’re old and need to spend as much time together as they can, you see), and Christina and her father (he had a kidney transplant and could die in five or ten years so every minute counts). It was nice to see the other women have such empathy for Tarzan and Christina (especially after how Christina has been treated over the last 33 days), but was their ire towards Kat misplaced?

Nah!

Kat, who likes to use her age as an excuse for her immaturity, feigned regret when returning back to camp, and then had a temper tantrum when Kim refused to let her win the immunity challenge. Even after those displays, Kim still felt Alicia and Kat were her best bets to win the game by going to the final three. (This will probably come as news to Chelsea who thinks she’s part of Kim’s final three … and for the life of me, doesn’t anyone realize that if they go to final three with Kim? She. Will. Win!) Chelsea was shocked to learn, from Kim, that Alicia was on the same page with her about Kat, although she didn’t let on to Kim about that. Kim had a chat with Tarzan, who said he heard the vote was for Kat but she told him to hold that thought, there was some exchange between them that was edited out, and he replied that something she said was a good idea. At this point, it wasn’t clear if the vote was for immature Kat, well-spoken Sabrina, or potential loose cannon Alicia (and how funny was it to see her and Kat talk about how they were running the show).

Tribal Council started off with a fantastic glare from Troyzan towards the women, and Jeff’s questioning somehow ended up with everyone ganging up on Kat. I seriously thought she was going to walk off the set because of how everyone brought up her bad choices in the reward challenge, and her age excuse for everything (“I’m only 22, so get over it”). When she finally got a chance to speak, and misuse the word “touché” again, Kat just dug herself deeper and deeper into a hole, alluding to the fact that a blindside was coming and that she thought it would be fun and exciting. Well, touché, Kat. How fun and exciting was it to be blindsided this week? Well, it was for me, anyway. Especially as she burst into tears while walking away and then saying in her exit interview that she was going to beg Jeff to let her play again to redeem herself! Touché indeed.

Clacked by Chuck Duncan
on May 02, 2012 @ 22:56 EST5EDT