A friend of mine is fond of claiming that Mark Burnett has a deal with the devil, as evidenced by the spectacular good fortune with which he's been blessed in various Survivor goings-on: the women beating the pants of the men at the start of the Amazon series, Rudy staying around well past any reasonable expectations in season one, etc. But this week that contract seemingly expired, as his bid to shuffle up the teams failed spectacularly. The odds against each team staying together as they did are roughly .5 ^ 8, or about 0.4%, which is 1:250. Clearly not what Burnett had in mind.
But then codacil 1542.71 kicked in, as Amber miraculously squirmed her way off the chopping block thanks to mass idiocy at Mogo Mogo. If I'm understanding the logic correctly, Lex decided to oust Jerri-- who would likely have supported him to the very end, as she said-- because he thinks Rob will help him out later and would carry a grudge if he voted Amber out.
Ex-CUSE me?
Lex is an idiot. If there's someone you genuinely fear in the game, the idea is to get him out. Evicting Amber would have seriously thrown Rob off his game and would have kept Mogo Mogo intact, in stronger position to survive post-merge. Instead, Amber and Rob have succeeded in eating away at Mogo Mogo from within.
Worse, why in the WORLD would Shii-Ann and Kathy go along with this plan? Kathy heard Rob beg Lex for Amber's life and offer him future aid in return for keeping Amber alive. So Lex, at least, felt he was getting something. But there was nothing in it for Kathy. Shii-Ann, I'm sure, was just happy it wasn't her own head on the block.
Or are they afraid Rob will hold a grudge OUTSIDE the game? I've heard that one of Rob's strategies was to gather as much dirt on the other Survivors as possible to use as leverage. Maybe he has something on Lex and Kathy that they'd rather not get out. Far-fetched, but I'm trying to make sense of their baffling idiocy.
One thing's for sure-- when Rob and Amber make it to the final four, they'll have definitely earned their spots. I wasn't crazy about their inclusion in All-Stars, but they're both playing much better their second time around.
And everyone else seems to be playing much worse.
Posted by Peter at April 2, 2004 11:54 AMIf they wanted to mix the tribes up, why not have the tribes draw from separate pots? I suppose the former Mogo Mogo wouldn't have been happy to be down 3-2 in both of the new ones.
Posted by: Jeff on April 2, 2004 01:33 PMStrange you should mention how the tribal shakeup didn't go as planned: I got the exact opposite feeling when Jeff repeated in a creepy way, "It was *meant* to be." What, has the show now decided to flaunt that some of its elements are staged? Everything in that sequence -- from the overdubbed "stand anywhere you like" to the red and green buffs coming out in an alternating pattern from that little pot -- rang false to me.
I am also convinced that Lex wants to lose this game. Maybe it's only in his subconscious, but that man could not be making worse strategic moves if he tried to convince his tribe that his grandmother had just died. Apparently Lex just can't wait for the Mogo Mogos to begin voting out his allies one by one, so he has started without them.
Before the show I thought it remarkable how Rob had such complete authority within one tribe; now I'm doubly impressed that he seems to have control over both tribes. He's going to win this game easily unless the other players stop paving the road for him.
Posted by: Scott Hardie on April 2, 2004 02:56 PMPeter, the fact that the tribes didn't get shaken up, but they did, essentially, switch camps only proves to me that Burnett still has that Devil pact going strong.
I mean, come on... no one gets split up *except* the couple? The "strong" team steals all that stuff and lives in the better camp only to lose it all to the other team in the flukiest way possible?
Signed with a pen dipped in his own blood, say I.
Posted by: Dave on April 3, 2004 05:21 PM