Survivor, or how to frontload all of your good episodes

SURVIVOR: FANS VS FAVORITES

This will be briefer than usual, but I'm gobsmacked sleepy and need to get off to dreamland to repair my weary neurons for work tomorrow. However, this week's Survivor obviously requires some enthusiastic worshipping.

I was worried the merge would be random, and gratefully it wasn't. Four and four, just the way it should be. It actually seemed to be a pretty fair split, and I'm sure the couples were happy to stay together. I wonder how long it takes the fans to realize they are couples?

The reward challenge was brutal. I do not appreciate injury on the show, it is just boring when people have to leave because they hurt themselves. Jonathan was hurt pretty bad, and although he is trying to tough it out, I'm really worried he might have to bail next week, which is just not cool. Amy seemed to recover, but I wasn't amused at having to look at Parvati's swollen lip the rest of the episode. Ick. Other than the injuries, I came away from the challenge with two impressions. Eliza might actually be stronger than I've been giving her credit for, despite wounding Parvati she also managed to win her point. The other is that Joel sucks. His answer to everything is just to run like a bull, which is great in some scenarios, but not in this one. He was killing Chet out there. As we saw in all the other rounds, as long as you work together you can always catch the other team, but instead of having any patience at all he tried to do it all himself by dragging Chet along and in doing so lost the game for his team. And then he was a dick about it. Lame.

The immunity challenge was sort of boring. But it did again seem to highlight that Chet really is worthless, although Joel didn't seem to be helping much. The editing made it impossible to tell who really was right or wrong, but in this game manners count. Also, Eliza really pulled it out again, solving the puzzle smartly and efficiently to give her team the win from behind. Dang, I was all settled in not liking her too.

So the losing team seems sure to vote off Chet. Again. But don't tell Cirie what to do. Once again she asserts her will over the rest of the tribe, and singlehandedly forces them to vote off Joel. A move like that would be inconceivable in any other season. (Well, Hunter I guess.) But Cirie has the big picture. Though I'm sure they didn't tell her, she knew that if Chet went her number would be up sooner rather than later, and she talked them into voting off their strongest player. Without Penner around to get her goat, I have to say at this point she is one of my favorite players so far this game. Talk about a mover and a shaker.

I'm a little bummed Chet is still around, because he is inherently uninteresting and in fact painful to watch, I really hope the poor guy gets put out of his (and my) misery soon. But I totally understand the thinking behind it. I wonder how long before Ozzy and James start getting nervous as the weak players really start to outnumber them. It is making for a killer first half of a season, but honestly, who wants to see Kathy and Chet in the final three? Oh that's right, no one.

The look on Joel's face when he got the fourth vote was simply delicious television. Not to mention his pal Blondie, who suddenly realized how close he himself is to having his own fire snuffed. Joel's death speech was predictably ironic. "I don't know what they were thinking" - uh, maybe the exact same thing you were thinking last week when you voted off Mikey?
So far Ozzy is the only one this season who doesn't seem to get cocky about his strength. Oh, and how funny is it that the blonde kid is totally in love with him? Hero Worship 101. Kinda cute, really. Wonder if that will change after last night?

So for now the Favorites are in the lead, although if Penner has to go next week that would even things out. I really don't see how he is going to prevent infection in his wound as he runs around in the tropics. They hint Amie considers swapping over next week, which might be a smart move for her, and very dangerous for Ozzy. At least she has finally worked her way into a storyline. I still hardly know who those Fan girls are. I also wonder if we will have any other tribe swapping mischief prior to the merge. One can hope anyway. One can hope.