Does being confused about how we got here make you hangry? If so you can satisfy that hanger here.

Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? I’m pretty rotten on tonight’s episode. If you’re familiar with Drop Your Buffs! then you likely already know my feelings around tricking the players. To me that’s not Survivor and to be honest, it’s not even fun for the general viewing public. I asked Grant Denyer, he surveyed 100 people about this and 99 said “this is shit…”. The one person left was AK and his response was “are you homosexual?”. There’s not really much strategy to talk about tonight, but let’s do what we gotta do and analyze this shit.

Words matter.

Is this chance at an idol a chance at a ‘reward’ as described by J-LaP, or is it a chance at an ‘advantage’? To anybody who has watched more than one season of Survivor then ‘rewards’ and ‘advantages’ are words that have very different meanings in Survivor. I know in the past I’ve scoffed at the fan uproar that resulted from the first tribe shuffle being called a ‘merge’. That’s a debate I have no time for, it really doesn’t matter what it’s called because we know what it is when we see it. But in this situation, the players don’t get to see it. They do however need to adjust their gameplay based on what it is. The ‘winner’ of this tribal council has a chance at an advantage. Knowing that it gives you a chance at an advantage changes completely the strategy and tactics that one might employ in this scenario. It was good to see J-LaP cop a grilling at tribal for a change. When Ben started speculating on what the “reward” might be I thought we were only a step away from someone asking J-LaP directly whether it was a reward or an advantage. Unfortunately they never got that far, or if they did, we didn’t see it.
To me, if you’ve got a chance at advantage, my first instinct is that you don’t want the advantage if it means that everyone knows you have an advantage, unless you’re in a particularly hairy spot (and I’m certainly not talking about Luke’s scrotum). Your best bet is to give it to someone that you are close enough to that you may have some power over how it is played, or at the very least know what and where it is.

Anarchy in the UK

I would even argue that you might consider throwing the challenge. It just adds another level of complexity, something more you need to keep track of. Male Rebel Wilson (AK) might argue that anything that adds panic and fear in the tribe is good. I would disagree if that something is an unknown something, especially an unknown something that has been called by the host himself ‘the ultimate reward’, that’s fire you don’t want to play with even if you are a hangry Locky. If you don’t think there’s a merge/shuffle coming soon then I would seriously consider letting the other tribe deal with that wasp’s nest. The last thing that I will say about this twist is that as far as a way to have an episode without someone going home, at least this beats what they did last week and have done in the past by blindsiding players with a tribe swapping tribal outcome.

Swamp Thing

Regardless of my feelings about this twist we find ourselves in a situation where Ziggy is given a shot at the advantage. This was a good move for everyone (except perhaps Ziggy, who already seemed in a good position). Certainly it would have been better for Henry and Locky if either of them found it because they are in the tightest situation at Samatau. But I don’t think Ziggy having it is necessarily bad for them. The thinking to give it to someone trustworthy who is likely to share with the tribe makes perfect sense. And if it turns out that she is sketchy about it, well she becomes too much of a threat and you try and take her out, or at the very least make her play her advantage. What should she do with it from here? Good question Russell. Well, first of all I hope she kept the little statue that it was in as something that she may be able to bluff with in the future. In fact if I were her, and I were also a good liar, then I would tell the rest of the tribe that the statue is the reward, and that it was some sort of legacy advantage similar to Millenials/GenX for her to give to the person of her choice, and hope that the lie isn’t exposed before you need to use the actual super-idol. Of course if I were me, I wouldn’t be in this position because I would do my best not to be chosen to get it. Of course she could just tell the tribe exactly what it was but that she didn’t find it, or only tell a very select few that she did. A risky move, no matter how good a liar you are there would always be the suspicion that she has it. I honestly don’t know what I’d do in her situation. I’m completely bumpuzzled. I suspect that I’m going to be thinking about this a lot in the coming week. Please give me your thoughts in the comments.

Holidays In The Sun

I can’t not mention the letters from home. Unexpected though it was when we’re not even half way through the season. To be honest when I saw them my first reaction was ‘I don’t care for this yet, they didn’t even have to compete for it, what the hell is going on?’. Within three minutes I was bawling my eyes out. Dang it Survivor you really know how to hit a brother right in the feelberries.

Next week actually sees me take a mid season break from published analysis for two episodes, but I’ll be back the following Sunday. Until then, I got nothing else for you, head back to camp.

– Russell Feathers

(Most memes created by Russell Feathers, most everything else and all gifs Channel Ten)

Russell Feathers needs your help, especially if you’re an aspie. Do you have a knack for finding typos, spelling, or other grammatical errors? Do you love pointing them out? If you’re one of these hotshit people and have found anything above, please let me know here! (Neurotypicals not excluded)