Survivor, or Sometimes Simple Plans are Better

Almost every episode of Survivor is packed full of tasty little treats, and if this episode won't go down in the hall of fame of episodes, it was still no exception. I consider myself a relatively saavy viewer, but even though I know better I am still dependant on the editors to guide me through, and it is funny what I forget week to week or how I change my mind about people.

So we start out with last week's recap, watching poor Frosti and Sherreah sailing off into an unknown future with the other team. Now, honestly, at this point I don't really care who wins, but rather I just think it is more exciting when teams merge with even numbers and have to scramble. Having one team dominate is just less fun. But do I like Pei Wei more than, say, Poker Man? Not really. But getting that even split for the merge is what I've been rooting for, so Aaron getting booted last week wasn't that bothersome to me.

Right away we start talking hidden immunity idol. Gay Mormon Flight Attendant still hasn't found it, so he enlists the help of Amanda. Now Amanda has been hiding in the background for a while, and it is a shame, because I just read her official bio and it is filled with so much deliciousness that I can't stand it. Her official title is "Hiking Guide", but then we learn that she is a model who wants to "develop a business within the fashion industry". She has been to China twice before to compete in the Miss Kite Of The World pageant, and was a semi-finalist. While there, she "was permitted to fly kites off the Great Wall in five-inch heels". You need permission to wear heels on the Great Wall of China? Who knew? Trying to boost her "hiking guide" moniker, it says "she has camped every weekend in Montana since she was three years old." Yes, but does she do it in heels? So now I love her. Other than her obvious hotness I don't know why, but I do. Actually I was liking her before I could picture her travelling the world to look pretty flying a kite, but now I love her.

I actually thought GMFA gave a pretty sorry story to her, his first of several poor maneuvers this episode. "I was going to wait until I found it to tell you, but I can't find it, so I'm telling you now." Luckily for him she was so excited to find out about it she didn't see how lame (and desperate) the excuse was.

On to the reward challenge. It was a pretty standard challenge without much excitement, except of course for Sherreah commiting suicide. Heh. During the challenge Pei Wei has a few moments of alone time with Sherreah and tells her they threw the challenge to save her, and that they want to stick with her and Frosti. In response to how her life was saved the previous week, Sherreah does her best to ignore her. Meanwhile Frosti won't make eye contact with them. After losing the challenge, and James is kidnapped, they go back to camp and start freaking out that they've made a terrible, terrible mistake in throwing the last challenge and decide they have to win the next one.

Over at the winning side, GMFA - ok, Todd - corners James and tells him "If you give me the clue I will save your life". Big promises boy! But it works, and little Todd boy has all his dreams come true as big manstud James is eating out of his hand. With the new clue in hand, they finally figure out where the hidden idol is. But this part is funny. Their attempts at retrieving it is so super obvious that Frosti comes over to help. Rather than abandoning their search they sort of try to shoo him away, but he doesn't, and in the end they are forced to show him the idol. Laughable. The editing doesn't really tell us if this accident helped change Todd's plans, but in the end he decides to give James the idol. Then he tells his team James is going to try and throw the challenge so that he, James, can use the idol and vote off Jamie.

I will give him points for choosing Jamie, since she is likable and allied with Eric. And on the surface the plan is clever, something I always love. But remember what I said a few weeks ago, that Todd talks a good game but is trying to hard? He had a HIDDEN immunity idol in his grasp, that could have saved HIM. Now everyone knows that they exist, that there are two, what they are. James has one, and is heading over to the other tribe where he can conceivably get the other. So now your strongest player in the game has both immunity idols? James is a short-term ally, not a long term. He makes it to the end, he wins. So while the plan itself was juicy, I thought the reasoning behind it was faulty to the extreme. At least he was smart enough to tell the entire tribe about it, winning him huge points for helping the team out, should he make it to the end with all of them on the jury.

So up comes the immunity challenge, and it is the eating contest. I always hate this one. I really think it would be funner if they had to eat like a huge Farrell's style ice cream sundae or down a whole bottle of wine so it was something they liked but then got sick on. Eating baby turtles is just not fun to watch. People would gag just as much trying to eat twenty plain hot dog weiners. But at least we have this super fun dynamic where now James is the one trying to throw the contest while his teammates are trying to win. Courney eats the first solid food of her life, and I have to give her credit that she did much better than I'd anticipated, but still loses to Jamie. (I'm not even going to get into why Courtney was sat out of the reward challenge so was forced to participate in the immunity challenge, like, smart move.) James is put up against Lunch Lady, and they have to eat dead baby birds, I forget what it is called, and frankly I don't want to remember. So James, who could probably eat a whole rat filled with maggots in one bite, is pretending to gag, while Lunch Lady, who probably serves worse in her own cafeteria, is absolutely unable to eat the thing, preferring to scream at it instead. "Get in my mouth!" or something like that. Her jedi-mind tricks fail her though, and she finally just gives up. James, meanwhile, is trying to have trouble but it is really killing him. So Lunch Lady finally gives him the baby blues, and says, quite clearly, "I'm sorry James". James sighs, picks up the baby birds and swallows them whole. Practically anyway.

Now here is my beef. Jeff has been acting all weird about the throwing of challenges, and has been coming down hard on the girls for it. Now, right in front of him, he has one contestant APOLOGIZING to the other, and yet he doesn't call them out on it? Clearly Jeff has his favorites.

What is even more fun about this all, is that it hardly matters which team wins. James is safe, so if he wins Todd can just vote off Frosti or Sherreah. Either way they get their numbers. But as James team starts winning, James and Todd keep making these incredulous and disappointed faces, which totally cracks me up. James looks downright glum when his team wins. I'm sure he was looking forward to surprising them with his immunity, but still.

So now Todd and Amanda, who seem to be running the show now that Aaron is gone, have to decide between Frosti and Sherreah. Frosti seems to be sucking right up to them, showing no signs of loyalty at all to his former team. I'm curious about him, you'd think he'd at least be trying to straddle the fence a bit. Anyway it works for now, so they decide they like Frosti better, and decide on Sherreah. Courtney, though, wants to get rid of Jean-Robert, because she doesn't like him. Todd wavers, cause he knows that Jean-Robert will betry him at the earliest opportunity, which is actually a valid concern. But Amanda is secretly a super smart model, and probably even wears glasses in private, so she still wants to get rid of Sherreah to ensure that they at least will have the numbers. And we have a gay boy/model stand off. Sweet.

I'm torn, I actually see both arguments (at least when Todd says it, nothing Courtney says goes beyond being a spoiled brat who just wants her way). I want a stand off between tribes come merge, but Jean-Robert is far more interesting than Courtney is.

At tribal council, Sherreah starts talking for the first time in two episodes, and I suddenly remember something. I totally hate her! Jean-Robert, who is still trying to peddle his "I'm coming around and working so much harder and it is so much fun it doesn't even feel like work anymore!" plan, has got to be realizing that no one is buying what he is selling. But to his credit he puts on the good face, even under direct assualt from Courtney and Sherreah. You could see his wheels turning, calculating the odds of different approaches, and in the end he chose to redirect and try to be positive, which came out a bit desperate perhaps, but for my money was way better then sinking down to their level. And his plan worked, because once Courtney got wound up she also ended up alienating Todd, who thought they had a close alliance. Whew! Get rid of her soon PLEASE!!

So the super-smart kite-flying heel-wearing camping-going model got her way, and schoolteacher Sherreah was unceremoniously dumped to the curb. Actually, it was quite ceremoniously, wasn't it? Heh. Anyway, she is finally gone so her poor students can stop being embarassed every week and can start the healing process.

Jean-Robert really dodged the bullet though. Next week it looks like we merge, which should favor him. Pei Wei and Eric and Brooke are the big targets now, though it won't take long before the in-fighting begins and James becomes number one target.