I was literally giggling with glee at the result of this week's Survivor tribal council, as Joel reaped what he had sown. The beauty of it is that even though he recognized the poetic justice of the situation a priori, once the axe came down on his head his final remarks indicated he could dish it out but couldn't take it. "How could they vote to keep someone like Chet?" he asked. He should know the answer to that, because he did it twice himself!. Joel went about the game all wrong from the start. The Fans should have banded together from the outset under the theory that the advantage would be with the Favorites' greater experience, and so they needed to remain united to have any chance. Instead Joel began by picking off the greatest threats to him personally, ignoring the larger needs of his team. Good riddance to bad rubbish, says I.
But let's talk about Cirie, who looked like she'd swallowed the canary during tribal council. That woman is playing the game harder than anyone else on the island, and none of the other players even know it. If they realized how crafty she's being, they'd bounce her in a heartbeat. She's doing all the right things. To stay alive, she has to band together with other "weaker" players and pick off the strong ones until the merge. While it's a team game, the physically weak are vulnerable, but once it becomes an individual game the equation inverts and the physical threats need to watch their backs while the weak cruise forward. Her game is all about surviving to the merge. I'm a little surpised Ozzy and Amanda agreed to oust Joel-- I'd have thought they'd have been confident enough to keep him around for the sake of a stronger tribe. All they have to do is make it to the merge and get reunited with James and Parvati, and the four of them are in a potentially great position.
I can't wait to see the faces of the other tribe when they learn that Joel was voted out. I'm predicting slack-jawed shock all around.
That was a brutal reward challenge. I suspect the producers had no idea it would become such an injury factory. But really-- Joel and Chet? How either of them agreed to that pairing is a mystery. I hope Jonathan isn't removed from the game because of his injury. That's just a horrible way to leave Survivor, not knowing if you'd have been able to make it to the end. But that wound looked nasty, and a choice between staying in the game and risking death is no choice at all.
Posted by Peter at March 9, 2008 2:17 PM