December 7, 2006: Everybody Hates Jonathan
And now we know why Parvati doesn't do any work at camp. It's just not safe. The girl nearly sliced her thumb off trying to open a coconut. Tragic as that may have been, Parvati's mishap allowed us another glimpse of that cute Aussie doctor from last season. Her sacrifice will not go unnoticed in my book.
This week was the family visits. Sundra's heartfelt weeping at the sight of her mother had me wondering if she'd be able to actually perform in the reward challenge of throwing water from one bucket into another while blindfolded. I'm still not sure. Mom wasn't catching much water and Sundra was all over the place. While Jonathan and his wife were well-matched - both competitive and innovative - it was the injured Parvati and her father who won the challenge and chose Sundra and Adam to join in the reward.
What happened next is why I think
Cook Islands is clearly among the best
Survivors we've seen. While the winners were feasting and Jonathan was at Exile Island, courtesy of Parvati, the remaining players were plotting to hide food from their enemies. These people are playing to win, but not with all the sneaky Richard Hatch tactics that made surviving purely a social game. Jonathan is Hatch-lite. He's an emotional player who did his best to play his opponents off of each other while he advanced. But this week, when I had finally fallen off of my fence and landed in the yard that liked him, Jonathan got the boot. The show has lost a worthy player. Up to the end, Jonathan made a strong case for staying on the island. On any other season, he might still be in the game. So long, Jonathan. I for one will miss you.
Another reason the season is great is that
Burnett has stepped up the challenges. This week, going for immunity was a punishing ordeal. I honestly thought Sundra broke her leg on that fall she took off the barrel. And yet Ozzy literally flew over that obstacle course and won immunity like it was nothing. Even so, we continued to pay attention, because it was a close race between him and Yul.
Cook Islands has a good cast, a good location and good challenges. Frankly, Burnett could have ditched the whole ethnic divide stunt, because this group of characters did not need it to make the show work. I believe the castaways are playing the game the way Burnett first envisioned it, and as viewers we're getting our money's worth. Maybe it's because the castaways are not students of the game, as past players have been. Maybe it's because the cast is more diverse. I don't know. What I do know is that
Cook Islands has been mighty entertaining. And even though we've already seen a mutiny, a thrown challenge, an invasion, a lost-at-sea moment and a dominant group withholding food, I can't wait to see more.
