A Lost Puppy Dog!
Sitting at home in our comfy chairs, feet up, remote in hand, maybe a snack and a beverage nearby we fans of
Survivor are apt to forget how brutal this game can be. Even as we watch castaways plot and scheme and ultimately stab each other in the back it's all good fun for us. But this season I'm seeing a real human element in the game that maybe I had glossed over before. Kathy's mental collapse evoked sympathy from me (though many a reader felt that she needed to suck it up). Players bowed out of the game due to injury. Tribe members fell in love and in lust all against the framework of a million-dollar payoff.
That million dollars, however, is the problem. People will do just about anything to be the last one standing in
Survivor and so tonight as I lounged in my sofa, watching a tearful player's plea for acceptance, my emotional and rational selves were at war. There I was, an armchair member of Malakal at Tribal Council trying to decide who and what to trust: Ami or Erik? Tears or logic?
This week's solo challenge skipped over the reward and went straight to immunity. Okay, they threw in a few pizzas and some beer for the winners, who not surprisingly, turned out to be the Airai Tribe. We thank Jeff for keeping a running, if humiliating, tally of Malakal's four straight immunity losses.
Tracey's ouster left Erik as the sole Fan on Malakal's tribe and he was so obviously on the chopping block that he retaliated with the only thing he had left: tattling. Kudos to Erik for not just giving up like so many past
Survivor losers have done. He went to the power people, in this case Amanda and Cirie and spilled the beans on Ami's treacherous behavior since the tribe mix-up. Completely busted, Ami could not explain her way out of the pit she had dug for herself. Amanda even said that, "we
know we can't trust Ami." Erik made a perfect move in playing on that alliance's existing mistrust. In so doing he secured himself another three days as a potential winner. Mufasa would be proud.
Maybe it was his underdog status, but by this point I was rooting for Erik to stay. While Airai avoided a dinner of skewered rat, viewers had to decide whether they smelled one in Ami as she talked about her feelings of exclusion within the Favorites' alliance. Then came her tears heartfelt, certainly. Sincere? I'm not so sure. Regardless, Ami's alliance turned on her and embraced the outsider.
Over at Airai, Parvati, though safe from tribal council, had not stopped playing the game. She left James to contemplate his existence on the "criminal's island" and set up a girls alliance with Alexis and Natalie, intending to reconnect with Amanda come the merge and make it an all girl final four. Even with this potentially game-changing move, Alexis and Natalie barely had any screen time. What is the deal with that? We have gotten to know the Fan-boys, so why not the women?
Anyway, the previews show that the merge is coming next week as well as what we hope will be a satisfying exchange between Jason and Eliza concerning his "immunity" idol or what she likes to call "a stick". Human element aside, it promises to get ugly once Jason realizes that Ozzy duped him. I cannot wait. Popcorn, anyone?
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