The Survivor immunity challenge I've always hated most is the one in which each player has 3 lives, and one by one players take away a life from the player of their choice. A player who desperately needs to win this challenge has absolutely no chance of doing so-- it's just another version of the tribal council vote, and a poorly conceived challenge.
But that's an individual challenge. Tonight we saw a poorly conceived team challenge. Nobody on the team mattered except for the anchorman. The fate of the entire tribe was in their hands, and each other tribe member had essentially no impact on the final outcome. Team challenges shouldn't be about one champion facing off against another, unless it's a tournament format where each team member competes and score is kept. Here it was just an endurance test between the strongest individual from each tribe, with everyone else watching from the sidelines. If I were Lillian, I'd be doubly frustrated at being voted off as a result of Osten losing that challenge.
Much as I'd have liked to have seen Darrah get booted, I'm hardly surprised. A tribe as demoralized and ravaged as Morgan shouldn't care about who does the most work in camp. It's all about who can help them win the challenges. I didn't notice Darrah making a stronger contribution than Lillian in that area, but then I wasn't on the beach. It's their call. A shame Lil's strong work ethic didn't save her.
Osten may be strong, but he singlehandedly lost both challenges for his tribe this week and the previews make it seem like he blows another one next time. Incompetence trumps strength-- it's time to vote him out.
Posted by Peter at October 2, 2003 11:31 PMI agree with you about the "team" challenge. Very dumb and quite unsatisfying. And not even that suspenseful, really. I mean, Osten may be more athletic than Rupert, but who honestly thought he was going to outlast that giant in essentially a tug-of-war?
Posted by: Dave on October 3, 2003 08:46 AMRight on. Would the challenge have been significantly different if it had allowed all ten players to hold the ropes, instead of forcing it to come down to the two musclemen? If the challenge had allowed each player to hang on until they dropped the rope (intentionally or accidentally), it probably still would have come down to Osten and Rupert at the end, but by chance instead of by design. Seems to me there are more fair ways for the producers to get the results they want.
That said, I'm impressed with the stamina demonstrated by Osten and Rupert. Osten should have coiled the rope around his arm to keep from dropping it, but it's a lot easier to think of that while watching from my living room. :-) Meanwhile, Rupert continues to soar in popularity, expected to win by over 40% of viewers. Sure he's a shoo-in if he can make it to the end, but the minute the tribes merge, he becomes everyone's number-one target. For his sake, I hope he chooses loyal (and dumb) allies.
Posted by: Scott Hardie on October 3, 2003 11:06 AMIn general, I've really enjoyed the challenges this time. I love the pirate theme. The reward one last night was great, with them trying to sink the other boats. It's unfortunate that Morgan has no sense of strategy.
But I'm still pulling for Morgan to figure it out, and start winning something.
Posted by: Greg on October 3, 2003 02:36 PMand i'm hoping for the opposite. i want to see morgan continue to lose.
i thought the reward challenge was great. morgan shoots themself in the foot by letting one of their boats float away.
osten hurts his team with moral (wanted to leave last week), stupidity (sinks his own boat), and isn't good enough at what they're keeping him for (strength).
no one in the andrew, t, osten alliance deserves to win.
Posted by: dana on October 3, 2003 03:45 PMI'm disturbed by the preview hint that Drake might take a dive to vote out a team member. Sometimes there is nothing like success to breed bad strategies. All the comments about Osten being a net burden are right on.
That said, Morgan tribe has shown no sense of strategy or quick thinking in the challenges, and I don't think anyone's claiming Osten has been kept around for that. I wonder if Andrew isn't concerned about his tribe losing these challenges partly because he figures he'll be around to the merge in any case..
As far as lasting to the end I'm starting lean towards Sandra. She's not a clear threat, so should survive the early merged tribe councils, but she also shows the sort of edge that I think her competitors may respect. Rupert would need quite a run of immunity wins to make it that far I believe.
Posted by: Brian L on October 5, 2003 09:18 PM