Saturday, April 11, 2009
Survivor: Tocantins - 1806
Note: This one's coming out a little late. I'll try to get the next issue up soon.
It was like playing hot potato with the immunity idol this episode. It's here, it's there, there's fakes, and so on.
Reward Challenge
Mmmm, BBQ. I like these challenges where the teams have to come up with some sort of strategy that can be totally different. In this case it was trying to block thrown pigs. Timbira decided to go with a more regular grid and Jalapao went with a randomness in effect method. I kind of think the grid would be better because the key element is to avoid leaving one large hole that they can throw the items through. Ultimately it was hard to judge which team had the optimal strategy because it also depended on their skill in throwing. And we know JT can throw, catch or hit anything.
Watching this one, I almost forgot that there were two barricades because all the action was at the end with JT and Tyson. Even the grid ended up with a sizable hole through it but it was at the bottom so that was slightly harder to throw the pigs through. Those pigs did look like they hurt a little bit too.
Timbira won again and wisely chose not to send Taj to Exile. It avoids tipping your hand to a cross-tribe alliance by showing favorites and they already have the immunity idol so there was nothing to be gained there.
Immunity Challenge
The immunity challenge was pretty normal except that only 3 people on the tribe really participated. It definitely made sense to just have the same person shoot out all the targets since they would get the most practice, unless they totally stunk it up. I have no reason to believe that JT wouldn't be the best at the shooting portion so Jalapao did the right thing in sticking with him. The puzzle looked pretty tough but there were only six puzzle pieces to get into place so that wasn't really that bad after all.
Strategy Analysis
This one was all about immunity choices good and bad. We can start with Taj telling JT that she has the idol. My gut reaction is that this was a bad move, but it seemed to work out for her in the end. She's still in the game and still has the immunity idol (maybe). Then when Taj went to show the immunity idol to JT she just took it back from Stephen, is that allowed? Jeff Probst said on his blog that Taj giving the idol to Stephen for safe-keeping was a legitimate transfer but she doesn't seem to realize that. And then after making her fake immunity idol did Taj hide the original idol in one of the tribe's fishing bags?! It's crazy.
So JT knows about the idol, Stephen pulls off a clearly lying acting job about not hearing anything and then JT decides not to get rid of Taj? Then Taj takes the idol she stole from Stephen and gives it back to him, but was it ever not his in the first place? My head is hurting from all of this. What it comes down to is that Taj is clearly an immunity ingenue who is not considering all of the angles. I wish that they would vote her out and she tried to use the idol but Stephen wouldn't give it back to her, just to teach her a lesson.
Regarding getting rid of Taj. I have to think that it would be a bad move because that would just trash the secret cross-tribe four person alliance. If Brendan and Sierra came over and Taj was gone how could they trust Stephen and what does that really buy you in the end?
And as for Joe. How can he believe that he has the real immunity idol? He found it in one second and it was super obvious from a number of clues before the last one that he had. Someone else clearly had found it. I was somewhat surprised that he didn't tell JT that he found the "immunity idol" maybe they aren't that tight after all.
My Prediction
Sydney. They won't pull off a huge game-changer when Stephen already has the idol in his pocket. Too bad she had to go.
Season total: 2-4 (.333)
Spell Check
Right: 4
Wrong: 1 (Sid)
Other: 0
Season total: 30-9-2 (.769)
Quick hit thoughts
It was like playing hot potato with the immunity idol this episode. It's here, it's there, there's fakes, and so on.
Reward Challenge
Mmmm, BBQ. I like these challenges where the teams have to come up with some sort of strategy that can be totally different. In this case it was trying to block thrown pigs. Timbira decided to go with a more regular grid and Jalapao went with a randomness in effect method. I kind of think the grid would be better because the key element is to avoid leaving one large hole that they can throw the items through. Ultimately it was hard to judge which team had the optimal strategy because it also depended on their skill in throwing. And we know JT can throw, catch or hit anything.
Watching this one, I almost forgot that there were two barricades because all the action was at the end with JT and Tyson. Even the grid ended up with a sizable hole through it but it was at the bottom so that was slightly harder to throw the pigs through. Those pigs did look like they hurt a little bit too.
Timbira won again and wisely chose not to send Taj to Exile. It avoids tipping your hand to a cross-tribe alliance by showing favorites and they already have the immunity idol so there was nothing to be gained there.
Immunity Challenge
The immunity challenge was pretty normal except that only 3 people on the tribe really participated. It definitely made sense to just have the same person shoot out all the targets since they would get the most practice, unless they totally stunk it up. I have no reason to believe that JT wouldn't be the best at the shooting portion so Jalapao did the right thing in sticking with him. The puzzle looked pretty tough but there were only six puzzle pieces to get into place so that wasn't really that bad after all.
Strategy Analysis
This one was all about immunity choices good and bad. We can start with Taj telling JT that she has the idol. My gut reaction is that this was a bad move, but it seemed to work out for her in the end. She's still in the game and still has the immunity idol (maybe). Then when Taj went to show the immunity idol to JT she just took it back from Stephen, is that allowed? Jeff Probst said on his blog that Taj giving the idol to Stephen for safe-keeping was a legitimate transfer but she doesn't seem to realize that. And then after making her fake immunity idol did Taj hide the original idol in one of the tribe's fishing bags?! It's crazy.
So JT knows about the idol, Stephen pulls off a clearly lying acting job about not hearing anything and then JT decides not to get rid of Taj? Then Taj takes the idol she stole from Stephen and gives it back to him, but was it ever not his in the first place? My head is hurting from all of this. What it comes down to is that Taj is clearly an immunity ingenue who is not considering all of the angles. I wish that they would vote her out and she tried to use the idol but Stephen wouldn't give it back to her, just to teach her a lesson.
Regarding getting rid of Taj. I have to think that it would be a bad move because that would just trash the secret cross-tribe four person alliance. If Brendan and Sierra came over and Taj was gone how could they trust Stephen and what does that really buy you in the end?
And as for Joe. How can he believe that he has the real immunity idol? He found it in one second and it was super obvious from a number of clues before the last one that he had. Someone else clearly had found it. I was somewhat surprised that he didn't tell JT that he found the "immunity idol" maybe they aren't that tight after all.
My Prediction
Sydney. They won't pull off a huge game-changer when Stephen already has the idol in his pocket. Too bad she had to go.
Season total: 2-4 (.333)
Spell Check
Right: 4
Wrong: 1 (Sid)
Other: 0
Season total: 30-9-2 (.769)
Quick hit thoughts
- Erinn declares "I have no alliances out here." That doesn't really bode well for her game, although at the merge all bets are off
- Coach is very out of touch with his tribe. He doesn't really consider their feelings at all - bad strategy
Labels: flying pigs, Immunity Idol
# posted by Andy Hejl @ 1:19 PM 
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