Survivor Duh
by Rich Glanzer
Mastercard says spending time with your loved ones, or taking a child to his first baseball game is priceless. For me, priceless is watching Lex's face with his mouth partially open after Kathy decided to keep her immunity idol. What I'm wondering is, how didn't he know this was going to happen.
Lex's fate was sealed when he decided that Ethan and Colby were way too strong for him, and he could never beat either one in individual immunity challenges. Lex painted that big giant X on his back all by himself. Instead of possibly going into the merge with a numbers advantage, Lex's master plan seemed to rely on Boston Rob's tribe thinking Shii Ann or someone else was a huge physical threat, and sliding under the radar till the end. Huh? More like Duh.
While I received much flack for this, I still think Lex made the right decision in voting off Jerri instead of Amber last week. Either way, the result would have been the same. Lex staring in space with his mouth open in stunned disbelief. Did I mention priceless?
The bottom line is, Lex was not going to win this game unless he pulled off a string of successive immunity challenges. Big Tom was not going to all of a sudden change tribes and forget his current alliances. What would that do him?
However Lex isn't the only one making huge mistakes in this game. Lex was right in voting off Jerri, because it should have bought him at least an extra week. But Boston Rob made a possible fatal mistake, when he decided to vote off Lex instead of Shii Ann. Shii Ann is the type of person that in other seasons could slide under the radar, and lose to the eventual winner in the final two. However it's not going to happen this season. Boston Rob's tribe seems too strong. However Shii Ann still could have served a purpose to Boston Rob.
Rob should have realized by breaking his word to Lex, he will never get Kathy or Lex to vote for him if he makes it to the final two. Had he voted off Shii Ann, and been straight with her, he could have received some honesty points. Plus Shii Ann doesn't seem to be the type of the women who will vote for the winner, solely based on gender. However the same probably cannot be said for Rupert or Jenna. Jenna was the first Survivor ever to try an all women alliance. While that failed, it was very telling how enthusiastic she was when voting for Kelly over Rich.
Equally as telling, is how Rupert shied away from the male members of Drake, and hung out with Christa and Sandra. Rupert also chose Jenna and Amber to fly away with him for his immunity award. So with Lex, Kathy, Jenna, and Rupert probably voting for Amber over Rob, it looks like it's time for Rob to choose common sense over Amber. Not to mention he would most likely have to break his word to Alicia for him to get to the final two with Amber. But at least he'd have Big Tom's vote. Probably.
So who is playing the best right now? Big Tom has my vote. If Big Tom makes it to the final two, he will no doubt receive Lex's vote, unless he goes up against Kathy. Then who knows? He probably can go to Rupert if he hasn't already, and make a pact with him. Jenna would come along for the ride. Bringing Rupert to the final two would be a smart move most likely, since no one knows Rupert from the outside. It's the one major disadvantage Rupert brought into this game.
And while not being friends from the outside is a legitimate disadvantage, it's nowhere close to the disadvantage Lex had. Being afraid of competition, and relying on Boston Rob. Two words: Priceless and Duh.
You know, did Mark Brunette forget about Survivor Amazon? What's with the women not allowed to compete against the men? First the log challenge was same sex vs. same sex, and now two immunities?!?!? C'mon. It makes for terrible TV. If I recall, women have held their own on many of the challenges. Most of the final three stand a long time challenges have been won by women, and both Kelly and Jenna Morasca won multiple individual challenges. So there's no reason for a separate division.
This Survivor had too much info to be packed into one hour. We needed to see the conversation which led Boston Rob to tell Lex he's out. But we didn't see word one. Not good.
Questions and Feedback, Rich can be reached at rich@survivorskills.com
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