Static Zombie

Best... Season... Ever

Tonight I caught up on Survivor through the finale. If this season proves anything, it's that when you make a deal with the Devil, the man with the horns really comes through. There's no other way to explain the otherwise inexplicably great television Mark Burnett managed to pull out of people who supposedly really knew the game.

As far as Ozzy goes, you can't blame him for not playing his idol and trusting his alliance. The gloves hadn't truly come off yet. Ozzy had to know in his heart that he had no prayer of making it to the finals, that nobody would want to go up against him. But there was no reason for him to believe that an ally would turn on him then.

Jason, on the other hand, had no excuse. Having just seen the guy with the immunity idol get betrayed, he should have had a clue. For him to believe the women wouldn't vote for him was stupidity of the highest order. Or so I thought. Turns out it was only the second-highest order, and that another player would later change the Survivor motto to include "Out-stupid."

Where the heck did they find Erik? A cryo-chamber from the fifties? I didn't think they made people that naive anymore. As a lifelong fan of the show, the boy should have picked up some lessons. Instead, his eyes were too wide to see anything clearly, and he got hoodwinked by the biggest load of bull since Ferdinand. I don't think he would have won the game had he not thrown himself under the bus, but Parvati was right-- hands down the dumbest player ever. The best reaction was James, proclaiming that he-- having been voted out with TWO immunity idols in his pocket in his own season-- was no longer the dumbest player.

Speaking of James, as much as it sucked for him to be medically removed from the game, his only chance to make ti to the end was to win all the immunities. Not impossible, but unlikely-- he's just not as good an all-around player as Ozzy. So I don't feel like he was shafted as much as Jonathan was.

I don't understand why Parvati and Amanda voted Alexis out instead of Natalie when Amanda used the hidden immunity idol. Alexis might have seemed like a bigger threat with the jury, but with her injured leg she was a far weaker threat in challenges. The right move was to get rid of Natalie first, then make sure Alexis didn't get immunity and oust her next. It turned out not to matter, of course, but it was a baffler nevertheless.

As far as the final tribal council goes, I'm very surprised at how bitter Ozzy was. It's a game. Parvati made a move in the game. It doesn't say anything about how she values friendships outside of it. Again and again on Survivor and Big Brother, people get their feelings hurt when people they hadn't even met a month earlier decide to look after themselves first, when that's exactly the game they signed up for. TWICE, in Ozzy's case. And people like Eliza sit there with smug, holier-than-thou expressions on their faces, thinking they're above it all when really they're just bitter that their game wasn't as good as that of the people who haven't yet been ousted. I'm not saying I wouldn't be angry if my chance at a million bucks slipped away due to the machinations of others, but at least have the decency to respect the game and deal with it.

But what the heck was the deal with Natalie's question to Parvati? I didn't even understand it.

Parvati's game was definitely stronger than Amanda's, but I didn't think she had a chance with the jury. Looks like the women all respected Parvati's aggression and disdained Amanda's more passive approach. You have to feel a little bad for Amanda, who made it to the finals two seasons in a row and lost the final vote each time.

I wish Probst would have polled the jury to see how they would have voted had it been a final three instead of a final two. It would have been interesting to see how many votes would have gone to Cirie.

And finally... Parvati's actual last name is Shallow. You just can't make that up.

Posted by Peter at May 11, 2008 06:39 PM