Survivor, or let the machinations begin

Once more, a huge sigh of relief that Fairplay is gone. With his toxic brand of "notice ME" patheticness gone, the show can now get back to its non-toxic but still hugely entertaining shenanigans that make it such a delight. (though I wouldn't have minded had he left his "Will lie for food" hat behind, heh.) And boy, were there shenanigans this week. Yes, that singing you are hearing is my heart celebrating the perfect delight of plotting survivors.

So the other all-stars are, like us, scratching their heads over Fairplays mysterious exit. I forget where i heard this, but somewhere I heard or read that Fairplay and his pregnant girlfriend are planning their own reality show. So he didn't come on Survivor to compete, but merely to advertise. Lame. I would rather be forced to watch the totally sucky (and totally cancelled) Dance Wars: Bruno VS Carrie Ann's search for the ultimate cruise ship performer in perpetual repeats than watch a reality show based on Fairplay. Ick.

So I'm kind of digging on the double couple alliance. For one, it is always fun to watch attractive people get all gooey eyed. Plus I just naturally like all four of them. But despite their cautionary voice-overs that they realize it could put targets on their backs, they are still arrogant enough to start macking it up in the middle of camp. This behavior is just amazing. Because it is completely stupid. I can see how impossibly romantic it must feel to them, but it is funny to see their hormones completely overtake their knowledge of how the game works. I hate to say it, but unless they start dominating challenges (which, with Ozzy and James around, is definitely possible) I see an early exit for my darling Amanda.

The challenge was typical, but fun. I was sort of bummed that Chet was so pathetic, because I'm really curious to see how the teams match up on even terms. But it was fun to see Ozzy just dominate his blond guy rival in the opening. But it was pretty telling watching Chet struggle to walk out of the water up the beach, contrasted with Jonathan forcing himself to run those last few steps even though he was clearly tired. Experience counts.

I'm curious why they chose the crazy lady to go to exile island. The first person there never finds the idol. That lady was sat out of the challenge, so she was already weak, how is making her more weak going to help you? I would have sent someone either reasonably strong to tire them out, or someone to hurt morale, or to break up an alliance, or something. I don't know what choosing her really achieved them. But I liked that two of them were sent, and good on Cirie for volunteering. Unless I was worried about camp, I would've volunteered too.

The scavenger hunt idea is totally rocking. Get someone strong like Ozzy there and the idol is found. What I'm curious about, are there two? Or do they have to fight over it? Also, points to Cirie - she was constantly complaining about how tired she was, but notice she was at all times a dozen strides in front of the other lady. Experience counts. She also did a great job at making friends with the lady, which is always something that could help you later on, although I'll be surprised if that lady lasts even to the merge. But still, you take your opportunities where you can, even if they don't end up panning out.

The fans team seems hopelessly fractured. I hate it that there is a division between the old and the young. Boring, even if somewhat understandable. Mostly it seems to suck for the builder woman who doesn't really seem all that old to me, but was clearly dumb enough to align to the two weakest players on the team. That they have two separate shelters is a new low though. I love that the young ones evicted the old ones from the cave, then came around and saw how much better the old ones shelter was, and then had the nerve to ask for help in building another one. Wow. I know we've met relatively few of the fans, but so far I'm not terribly impressed with them yet. I will also be tickled to death if they use up their flint and lose their fire, because that would just be funny.

However, I loved the twist. Voting Chet off seemed completely obvious, but Survivor is at its most fun when it eschews the obvious for some crazy scheme. Mr. Over-Analyze guy was drunk on his own intelligence, and the Hulk totally smacked him down for it, which was awesome. Of course who pays? The poor pretty girl with the big boobs. They didn't even kiss. Oh, Amanda, your days are numbered aren't they? I felt a little bad for boob girl, because I am a total shallow snob and even though I didn't know or really care about her at all yet, I always feel sad when unexpected bad things happen to attractive people.

Now that Mr. Examine Every Possible Outcome In Excruciating Detail has been given the smack down, I can't wait to see how he reacts next week. Will he take a step back and pretend he doesn't really care and just wants what is best for the team? Or will he start plotting against the Hulk? Ah, I can dream, right? Because if the rest of the team didn't like that he was becoming the leader, do they realize that they just made Hulk the leader? Or are they just allowing the alpha males fight it out and are falling in line behind the strongest? All interesting.

I'm also trying to figure out why Hulk didn't even play his own game, and still voted for Tracy. Like, what was that about? Is he trying to maintain some level of deniability? I can't really figure out what his game was with that, but he clearly made that choice for a reason. I hope it comes out.

PS - If I were Cirie, I'd align with the couples. Not only are they stronger and will be better at winning, but assuming they stick together until the end, when it gets down to five the couples will turn on each other and Cirie will again be the swing vote, so she could make it to the top 3 easy.