Sunday, October 19, 2008
Survivor: Gabon - Episode 1705
Wow, GC really has joined pantheon of the worst survivors ever. I'm talking Osten and Janu territory, maybe even Rafe or Lil (she made the finals but did she really do anything to deserve it? and she essentially got voted out twice). GC is described as a "maintenance supervisor" but does he really supervise anyone? What a terrible manager he would make with no seeming motivation of his own. How does this guy get onto Survivor in the first place. He never really had any energy after he trucked it up the hill to win the first individual immunity challenge.
The other highlight of this show seemed to be the nature highlights. I thought that the elephant was awesome and it shows you how much they are out there this season. Normally we see all wild animals only in cut scenes and they're just edited together to make it look more wild than it actually is. This was the real deal - everyone was just rapt with complete attention to that elephant. Then Kota found an electric fish, which I didn't know existed. I was sort of waiting for Bob to rig up a lamp so that they'd have more light at nighttime.
Reward Challenge
The reward for the challenge was an herb garden? Pretty interesting but would probably not be as great for Fang considering they should run out of rice in about 2 days. Even if they had won that first challenge the rice and beans would only have lasted another couple of days. I think that Ace was a good man on the club but Crystal and Charlie are really not people that we should recruit for Imperial Palace - they can't hit as well as Avocado. To continue the IP analogy, Randy sliding in to catch that fruit reminds me of Nick in the outfield.
I was trying to think of a good strategy for this challenge and really throwing more than one piece of fruit at the same time is the way to go. There were multiple people who were available to catch it. The other possibility was just to take an apple and peg the club man in the throat and then throw your fruit through at your leisure. Ace took care of that himself.
Immunity Challenge
I did think originally that this could be more luck that skill, especially in terms of the throwers. The hill was very steep at the beginning so the only real choice was to pick good blockers. Sugar was a really bad choice for this since she seems pretty soft-spoken and you really need a loud mouth up there (like Eliza). This was proven when Randy yells out "Freeze Ace" at the end, a crafty play by Randy. He doesn't like to play fair between this and his cherry picking last week. This was like Survivor Plinko, but really not one of the most compelling challenges.
Strategy Analysis
Looking at this I totally figured that GC should go home since he was totally under performing. Of course you can pretty much get rid of him whenever you want. I thought that Fang hit on the solution by talking about voting out Sugar. She's really not great in challenges and you can flush out the immunity idol at this point in the game. It's a given that she had it even if they hadn't looked in her bag. No one goes to Exile for 9 days and gives up after reading 2 clues unless maybe it was Janu who didn't look in the first place. Also, how does Sugar not hide the idol somewhere around camp? That's crazy. I don't think that you should be allowed to go through people's things, but if that's allowed you have to hide important things like that.
This does highlight where Survivor departs from pure strategy. As a viewer at home we can recognize that GC is a real drag and doesn't help out. But we don't have to deal with him all the time like they do at camp. Frequently they depart from pure strategy due to personality conflicts. This is one of those cases.
My prediction: GC. He's done but the smart money is on Sugar
Season total (1/2)
Spell Check:
Right: 5 (GC is pretty easy to spell)
Wrong: 0
Other: 2 (G Size, and G-$izzle)
Quick hit thoughts
The other highlight of this show seemed to be the nature highlights. I thought that the elephant was awesome and it shows you how much they are out there this season. Normally we see all wild animals only in cut scenes and they're just edited together to make it look more wild than it actually is. This was the real deal - everyone was just rapt with complete attention to that elephant. Then Kota found an electric fish, which I didn't know existed. I was sort of waiting for Bob to rig up a lamp so that they'd have more light at nighttime.
Reward Challenge
The reward for the challenge was an herb garden? Pretty interesting but would probably not be as great for Fang considering they should run out of rice in about 2 days. Even if they had won that first challenge the rice and beans would only have lasted another couple of days. I think that Ace was a good man on the club but Crystal and Charlie are really not people that we should recruit for Imperial Palace - they can't hit as well as Avocado. To continue the IP analogy, Randy sliding in to catch that fruit reminds me of Nick in the outfield.
I was trying to think of a good strategy for this challenge and really throwing more than one piece of fruit at the same time is the way to go. There were multiple people who were available to catch it. The other possibility was just to take an apple and peg the club man in the throat and then throw your fruit through at your leisure. Ace took care of that himself.
Immunity Challenge
I did think originally that this could be more luck that skill, especially in terms of the throwers. The hill was very steep at the beginning so the only real choice was to pick good blockers. Sugar was a really bad choice for this since she seems pretty soft-spoken and you really need a loud mouth up there (like Eliza). This was proven when Randy yells out "Freeze Ace" at the end, a crafty play by Randy. He doesn't like to play fair between this and his cherry picking last week. This was like Survivor Plinko, but really not one of the most compelling challenges.
Strategy Analysis
Looking at this I totally figured that GC should go home since he was totally under performing. Of course you can pretty much get rid of him whenever you want. I thought that Fang hit on the solution by talking about voting out Sugar. She's really not great in challenges and you can flush out the immunity idol at this point in the game. It's a given that she had it even if they hadn't looked in her bag. No one goes to Exile for 9 days and gives up after reading 2 clues unless maybe it was Janu who didn't look in the first place. Also, how does Sugar not hide the idol somewhere around camp? That's crazy. I don't think that you should be allowed to go through people's things, but if that's allowed you have to hide important things like that.
This does highlight where Survivor departs from pure strategy. As a viewer at home we can recognize that GC is a real drag and doesn't help out. But we don't have to deal with him all the time like they do at camp. Frequently they depart from pure strategy due to personality conflicts. This is one of those cases.
My prediction: GC. He's done but the smart money is on Sugar
Season total (1/2)
Spell Check:
Right: 5 (GC is pretty easy to spell)
Wrong: 0
Other: 2 (G Size, and G-$izzle)
Quick hit thoughts
- How does Ace claim that Sugar hasn't eaten in 3 days. Clearly they can't let exiles not eat for that long
- What would happen if GC misses the challenge? That would be good TV
- Is Sugar really as much of a pawn as she seems? She better not give Ace the idol
- Are Kenny, Crystal, GC the worst alliance ever? They remind me of when Shane and Courtney formed an alliance in Panama but completely hated each other.
Labels: Survivor
# posted by Andy Hejl @ 11:19 AM 
Comments:
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I love how this "commenting" thing is totally catching fire! With the current volume of comments, Blogger may soon be revoking your free membership.
OK, back to Episode 1705:
- GC sucks. He was absolutely, totally broken by the experience, and although things were tough at Fang, I wouldn't rate this one of the worst Survivor experiences. Although Sugar was the clearly the best strategic play, I don't think any tribe can survive with someone who clearly wants to go home. They had to vote GC for their sanity and his. If they voted Sugar, I was a little worried he would have a mental breakdown.
- Sugar is completely dumb. After the first time at Exile, she at least pretended she didn't have the idol. After her second time, she went with the, "Oh, I didn't bother looking for it" strategy? To anyone paying attention, she basically just declared, I found it!!!
- That said, I love that the producers made Exile (not really an) Island so comfortable this season. Great move! Go get yourself some fruit!
- It's very interesting to watch all the former Fang members beg to be part of the new Kota. How long did Dan and Randy take to switch sides? I don't recall another season where people so willingly switched allegiances (If it has happened, I'm sure Andy remembers). After the merge, it's not going to be Former Fang vs. Former Kota - it's going to be Former Kota vs. Kota Wannabes vs. Former Fang (basically just Matty and Crystal).
- Whenever I look at Bob, I see Tim Funk circa 2050.
OK, back to Episode 1705:
- GC sucks. He was absolutely, totally broken by the experience, and although things were tough at Fang, I wouldn't rate this one of the worst Survivor experiences. Although Sugar was the clearly the best strategic play, I don't think any tribe can survive with someone who clearly wants to go home. They had to vote GC for their sanity and his. If they voted Sugar, I was a little worried he would have a mental breakdown.
- Sugar is completely dumb. After the first time at Exile, she at least pretended she didn't have the idol. After her second time, she went with the, "Oh, I didn't bother looking for it" strategy? To anyone paying attention, she basically just declared, I found it!!!
- That said, I love that the producers made Exile (not really an) Island so comfortable this season. Great move! Go get yourself some fruit!
- It's very interesting to watch all the former Fang members beg to be part of the new Kota. How long did Dan and Randy take to switch sides? I don't recall another season where people so willingly switched allegiances (If it has happened, I'm sure Andy remembers). After the merge, it's not going to be Former Fang vs. Former Kota - it's going to be Former Kota vs. Kota Wannabes vs. Former Fang (basically just Matty and Crystal).
- Whenever I look at Bob, I see Tim Funk circa 2050.
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