Obviously the editors at Survivor don’t read my emails because once again Galu got no coverage this episode. While watching this episode, Whitney commented, “I don’t like that tribe.” As soon as she said it, we talked about why that might be and we decided it is because we haven’t spent any time with them. Even though they keep on winning, the way the show has been edited makes Foa Foa the underdogs (even though they have dug their own grave) and Galu as the bad guys, even though there seems to be some very nice people on that tribe. If Foa Foa keeps losing, expect a shake up between tribes very soon. I want to see this just to see how Evil Russell reacts to this.
You know a tribe is dysfunctional when as soon as tribal council is over, they are talking about who is going next. It’s as if that they are already expecting to lose in the challenge. This is when strategy takes over the game too much and you just need to focus on your tribe winning. As it played out the whole episode, Ashley and Ben were on the chopping block from the get go. Ben because he’s, well, Ben... and Ashley because Evil Russell is intimidated by smart girls.
I don’t know if you will agree with me on this, but I am beginning to think that Evil Russell is a lot smarter than what he even displays. Yes, it’s obvious that he loves the spotlight and I think he gives himself way too much credit, but he definitely can get people to trust him. The gullible and to me, boring, Mick is like a King who lets his advisor make all the decisions for him. I keep telling myself that people are going to catch on to Evil Russ, but maybe his seed analogy is true. The reason I am giving him this credit is because of how he backed away from his strategy to get Ashley off. I saw a switch go off in his head that usually happens with great players. Great players know how to be aggressive, yet know when to back off a bit. We’ll see if he stays in this category, because he could easily get bit by the cockiness bug that takes down players (Kenny from Gabon comes to my mind).
For some reason the immunity challenge didn’t click with me this time. I know it was another physical one, but I couldn’t quite grasp the strategy of the players to keep others out of the “block zone.” Also, I don’t like it how some of the players on Foa Foa sat out even though they were down in numbers. I think it was ok for that first challenge because it was just for reward and it started things off, but I think if all possible, everybody should compete. Seeing Mr. Rebel completely miss a tackle was all worth it though.
Following the challenge, we finally got to see some drama at Galu’s tribe besides Shambo’s disgust. Good Russell, as the tribe’s leader, chose comfort over functionality. No matter what he chose, somebody was going to be mad. I wouldn’t have chosen the same way, but that’s not the reason I thought this was a bad move. It was because his explanation to his tribemates about taking care of his women was completely displaying his strategy in this game. He clearly is going to try to make alliances with the women in his tribe, which is smart, but I do think it’s dumb that he declared it out loud like he did. If I were the other guys on the tribe, this would have been a huge red flag for me.
We then saw Shambo throw her tribe under the bus as she became the most amazing person ever in the eyes of Foa Foa. Yasmin, take notes... If Shambo was smart, she would try to mend fences better at Galu, but regardless, she has put herself in a great spot if a merge was to occur. She showed exactly what you need to do if you spend time at another tribe’s camp.
Now to the ousting of Ben... He needed to go and I’m proud of Jaison for standing up like he did. Now, from a game perspective, I don’t know about his threat of leaving the game if Ben stuck around, from a personal perspective, I commend him. I think mentally Jaison is going to check out of Survivor. This pains me to say because he’s my pick for this season, but I think he’s a very smart and athletic guy who could win this game, but other personalities may become the death of him. He’s almost to that point of being so smart the he’s going to put life in perspective and wonder why the heck he is interacting with these wild personalities. Maybe with Ben gone, that will change, but who knows?
It was good to get rid of Ben just from a tribe dynamic position. He was annoying, not really great at challenges, and we really didn’t get to see how much he actually did at camp except just chop one piece of wood over and over and over again. That was one of the most personal tribal councils I’ve seen and I was with Jaison all the way. I thought that Jaison eloquently stated his position well and Ben just was way too prideful to admit that he made a mistake. I don’t remember exactly how he put it, but when he said, “Ok Ben, even if you think Yasmin is ghetto trash, at least admit you weren’t being sensitive to the history of African Americans,” and Ben still wouldn’t back down. That “Southern pride” that just makes me sick. I think it’s one thing to cast controversial people for this show, but I think the producers went too far in casting Ben. Being the way he was in front of everybody, they had to know about his racial tendencies from all the profiling they do for contestants before a show airs. If he had stuck around more, who knows what could have happened between Ben and Jaison, or even Ben and Yasmin, and I think that would definitely had crossed that line of good television versus bad taste. Good riddance to Ben and I hope he gets as little limelight as possible shined on him. I didn’t even love to hate Ben, I just was disgusted by him.
On that cheerful note, what did you think? Am I giving Evil Russell too much credit? What would you have chosen, comfort or functionality? Did Good Russell make the right decision? What did you think of Jaison’s way of getting Ben voted out? What did you think of Ben and do you think the producers went too far in casting somebody like Ben?
Week 3:
The Racist is Gone
Obviously the editors at Survivor don’t read my emails because once again Galu got no coverage this episode. While watching this episode, Whitney commented, “I don’t like that tribe.” As soon as she said it, we talked about why that might be and we decided it is because we haven’t spent any time with them. Even though they keep on winning, the way the show has been edited makes Foa Foa the underdogs (even though they have dug their own grave) and Galu as the bad guys, even though there seems to be some very nice people on that tribe. If Foa Foa keeps losing, expect a shake up between tribes very soon. I want to see this just to see how Evil Russell reacts to this.
You know a tribe is dysfunctional when as soon as tribal council is over, they are talking about who is going next. It’s as if that they are already expecting to lose in the challenge. This is when strategy takes over the game too much and you just need to focus on your tribe winning. As it played out the whole episode, Ashley and Ben were on the chopping block from the get go. Ben because he’s, well, Ben... and Ashley because Evil Russell is intimidated by smart girls.
I don’t know if you will agree with me on this, but I am beginning to think that Evil Russell is a lot smarter than what he even displays. Yes, it’s obvious that he loves the spotlight and I think he gives himself way too much credit, but he definitely can get people to trust him. The gullible and to me, boring, Mick is like a King who lets his advisor make all the decisions for him. I keep telling myself that people are going to catch on to Evil Russ, but maybe his seed analogy is true. The reason I am giving him this credit is because of how he backed away from his strategy to get Ashley off. I saw a switch go off in his head that usually happens with great players. Great players know how to be aggressive, yet know when to back off a bit. We’ll see if he stays in this category, because he could easily get bit by the cockiness bug that takes down players (Kenny from Gabon comes to my mind).
For some reason the immunity challenge didn’t click with me this time. I know it was another physical one, but I couldn’t quite grasp the strategy of the players to keep others out of the “block zone.” Also, I don’t like it how some of the players on Foa Foa sat out even though they were down in numbers. I think it was ok for that first challenge because it was just for reward and it started things off, but I think if all possible, everybody should compete. Seeing Mr. Rebel completely miss a tackle was all worth it though.
Following the challenge, we finally got to see some drama at Galu’s tribe besides Shambo’s disgust. Good Russell, as the tribe’s leader, chose comfort over functionality. No matter what he chose, somebody was going to be mad. I wouldn’t have chosen the same way, but that’s not the reason I thought this was a bad move. It was because his explanation to his tribemates about taking care of his women was completely displaying his strategy in this game. He clearly is going to try to make alliances with the women in his tribe, which is smart, but I do think it’s dumb that he declared it out loud like he did. If I were the other guys on the tribe, this would have been a huge red flag for me.
We then saw Shambo throw her tribe under the bus as she became the most amazing person ever in the eyes of Foa Foa. Yasmin, take notes... If Shambo was smart, she would try to mend fences better at Galu, but regardless, she has put herself in a great spot if a merge was to occur. She showed exactly what you need to do if you spend time at another tribe’s camp.
Now to the ousting of Ben... He needed to go and I’m proud of Jaison for standing up like he did. Now, from a game perspective, I don’t know about his threat of leaving the game if Ben stuck around, from a personal perspective, I commend him. I think mentally Jaison is going to check out of Survivor. This pains me to say because he’s my pick for this season, but I think he’s a very smart and athletic guy who could win this game, but other personalities may become the death of him. He’s almost to that point of being so smart the he’s going to put life in perspective and wonder why the heck he is interacting with these wild personalities. Maybe with Ben gone, that will change, but who knows?
It was good to get rid of Ben just from a tribe dynamic position. He was annoying, not really great at challenges, and we really didn’t get to see how much he actually did at camp except just chop one piece of wood over and over and over again. That was one of the most personal tribal councils I’ve seen and I was with Jaison all the way. I thought that Jaison eloquently stated his position well and Ben just was way too prideful to admit that he made a mistake. I don’t remember exactly how he put it, but when he said, “Ok Ben, even if you think Yasmin is ghetto trash, at least admit you weren’t being sensitive to the history of African Americans,” and Ben still wouldn’t back down. That “Southern pride” that just makes me sick. I think it’s one thing to cast controversial people for this show, but I think the producers went too far in casting Ben. Being the way he was in front of everybody, they had to know about his racial tendencies from all the profiling they do for contestants before a show airs. If he had stuck around more, who knows what could have happened between Ben and Jaison, or even Ben and Yasmin, and I think that would definitely had crossed that line of good television versus bad taste. Good riddance to Ben and I hope he gets as little limelight as possible shined on him. I didn’t even love to hate Ben, I just was disgusted by him.
On that cheerful note, what did you think? Am I giving Evil Russell too much credit? What would you have chosen, comfort or functionality? Did Good Russell make the right decision? What did you think of Jaison’s way of getting Ben voted out? What did you think of Ben and do you think the producers went too far in casting somebody like Ben?
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