This week’s Survivor perfectly illustrated one of the many reasons why the Edge of Extinction is a terrible idea. For the Fire Token challenge, each of the four castaways had the chance to obtain one. All they had to do was walk up a giant hill and bring down a pile of 20 logs of firewood. The twist (of course there’s a twist) was that they had to do it one at a time. And here I was thinking walking up and down the hill at the UW-Eau Claire campus was brutal (shouts to any fellow Blugolds out there).
As difficult as this surely was, it made for almost entirely boring television. If not for Ethan almost fainting, it would have been one of the least interesting segments in Survivor history. And yet the show still spent far too much time here. Yes, of course it was inspiring to see Ethan fight through it, using his life experiences, and battles against cancer to get back up and will his way to finishing the task. But it came at a great creative cost. We missed out on seeing the Sele and Dakal relationships grow. The opportunities for any character development fell to the wayside, as did the chance for more strategy talk.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the season’s weakest episode so far (though still quite good, to be fair) was the one that spent the most time on the Edge. I know production feels they need to give the Edge inhabitants a fair shake, so this was bound to happen eventually. But it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.
To make it worse, Amber had a quote that summed up the single worst thing about the Edge: “I also realized the bond we have created in this very short time. It’s strong, and I felt it in that moment, and it felt good.” That comment feels like the beginning of another potential Chris Underwood situation, which would be the absolute worst thing to happen to this season. It’s only one comment, and it’s still early in the game, so I’m not going to go off on a rant (not yet at least). But just keep it in mind.
Sele
Adam starts off by saying he feels betrayed by Boston Rob.
Sorry buddy, but that is not how it went down. But anyway, Adam goes on an apology tour, talking to everyone in the tribe, and doing anything and everything he can to help out around camp. Obviously, everyone sees through it, but Adam had no other choice. If he sits around and keeps things the status quo, he’s saying he didn’t learn anything from his past actions. And you can’t have that. At least he’s making an effort.
Adam reached the point where his game strategy is to basically not play the game. When he’s talking to Rob and Parvati, he won’t give them anything. He knows if he’s seen talking to them and others get the wrong idea, he might as well hop in a boat and head to the Edge without even going to Tribal. This doesn’t stop Rob and Parvati though.
They both go to Jeremy and Michele, with Rob telling them is still trying to talk strategy with him, that Adam won’t leave him alone. And they buy it, hook, line, and sinker. Even with Rob and Parvati clearly on the bottom, Jeremy and Michele immediately take him at his word, and you can’t really blame them. He’s the Robfather. He’s just that good.
Dakal
We see the beginnings of what should have been some compelling TV, but unfortunately it gets cut short (thanks, EoE). Tyson astutely sees that those on the tribe who are seen as deeply connected are going to be the next-in-line targets. He wants to bring in Tony and Sandra on this, but Tyson has already gone after Sandra once, and she’s out for revenge.
Immunity Challenge
So maybe not quite as monumental as the Miracle on Ice, but the immunity challenge comeback by Sele was miraculous, at least in Survivor terms.
For this challenge, three members of each tribe were in a boat, with the other four swimming through the ocean, pulling the boat to a platform. The players in the boat climb a tower on the platform and jump off, grabbing keys hanging off a cradle. Sele made what was potentially fatal mistake by having their three shortest players (Adam, Denise, and Parvati) on key duty. Denise and Parvati proved unable to get even one key between them, putting it all on Adam’s shoulders. He tried and failed, tried and failed, tried and failed over and over again. He was at a disadvantage from the jump just by being shorter. Factor in the exhaustion from repeatedly climbing, jumping, swimming back to the platform, and it was a miracle he even was able to keep trying.
This allowed Dakal to grow a huge, seemingly insurmountable lead. But they found themselves at a standstill at the puzzle, while Boston Rob and Michele (though mostly Boston Rob, at least from the edit) cruised through it, giving Sele a shocking, and much-needed, immunity victory.
Pre-Tribal/Tribal
Tyson still wants to target Nick, pushing the same “connected players are on the chopping block” pitch. He also gets tries to reel in Tony with the “keep big shields around” strategy. If Tyson goes, then it will be Tony, then Sandra, and so on and so forth. Tony is initially on board, as he goes to Sarah, who goes to Kim, and all of a sudden we have an 8-person coalition against Nick. Too easy, though, right? And in Survivor, if something seems too easy, there’s a 99.9% chance it is.
Sandra is still on her revenge mission, and won’t relent until she sees Tyson voted out. The edit led us to believe it would be a tight vote between Tyson and Nick. But ultimately it was unanimous. Well, almost unanimous, as Nick put his vote on Kim, in an effort to protect against an idol play from Tyson. And that’s smart. If the group thinks it truly has an 8-1 decision, you have to put one vote on someone else to guard against the idol. But the question now becomes, how will Kim react to that? Nobody ever likes being the back up vote.
Final Thoughts
- Sandra sat out of the immunity challenge AGAIN
- There needs to be some kind of rule change here
- Completely unfair that the same person can sit out of every single immunity challenge
- Tribe swap next week!
- With Tyson, yet another player connected to Boston Rob is voted out
- How much longer will this last until the Robfather sees himself sent to the Edge?
- Possibly more than any other season, pre-existing relationships are playing a HUGE part in who is being targeted and voted out
- Rob, Parvati, and Sandra have to start going soon, right? Right?
- Yes, they’re all great players (duh), but the season is filled with great players
- These three can’t be allowed to hang around
