Dummies.
That is the theme of this season of Survivor and this episode.
These people are making idiotic moves left right and center and with Joe exiting last week, there’s no clear frontrunner to win because everyone is playing this game dismally.
It was time for the Survivor auction and two massive mistakes were made. EVERYONE knows that the final item is an advantage in the game. When it came down to it, Dan, Carolyn and Mike refused to buy food in order to make a play for the advantage. However, Jeff threw a curveball with letters from home. Everyone agreed to pay $20 for the letters… except for Mike. But after he got called out by Dan and Carolyn, Mike caved on his brilliant decision, bought the letter and ended up losing the advantage via fate (aka drawing rocks) to Dan. And the advantage was epic. An extra vote at a tribal council of your choosing. And you revealed you had that power when you were going to lost it.
The other mistake was made by Will. He bought the first item, which kicked him out of the auction, but gave him a secret stash of food that would last him to the end of the game. But did he keep it a secret? Nope. He shared it with the rest of the camp to curry favour. What favour? They could vote you out and keep the food. You giving the food doesn’t mean they have to keep in the game.
But the dumb moves didn’t stop there.
As much as I cannot stand the sound of Mike’s voice, he’s actually playing the game. It seems like he and Rodney are the only two doing so. At the top of the episode, Mike overhear a conversation between Tyler, Carolyn and Will and their plan to oust Mike. Once Mike botched the Survivor auction, he returned to camp and whispered to Sierra that the reason he went for the advantage was because Rodney flipped. Sadly, instead of whispering it to Dan, he stopped everyone from reading their letters to put Rodney on blast. Good idea Mike, but bad timing.
Sure the timing sucked, but how Rodney reacted was telling and NOBODY noticed. While Mike was calm and collected when he was confronting Rodney, Rodney was overreacting and had an outburst, denying he flipped on his Blue Collar alliance. If he didn’t flip, then why is Rodney acting like a crazy person? Come on dummies. People watching is a key part of this game and you guys have the blinders on.
Alas, it didn’t stop there.
Mike threw the idea out to Shirin and Sierra that there was a chance that Will lied and got more than he said. After Rodney discovered this, he and Will went and fetched to prove that there was no way anything else could fit in it. But Will didn’t stop there. He went on a tirade and set his sights on Shirin and began to take digs at her personal life telling her that she had no one at home who loved her and she had no family. I understand that Survivor puts an insane amount of pressure on you, but everyone else is going through that exact pressure. There’s no need to be classless and show absolutely no respect to Shirin.
At the reward challenge, the idiotic moves continue when Will offered to take himself out of the challenge just to get his letter from home. Probst was about to do it, but everyone had to agree to it. But Shirin paid it forward and objected to Will’s request. For a super fan, I can’t believe it took someone calling you names to finally assert some sort of action from Shirin. While people at home might think Shirin did was wrong, I don’t fault her for it and think she made the right decision for her and for her gameplay.
With immunity on the line, it was between Tyler and Mike. Mike needed it to stay in the game and Tyler needed it to seal Mike’s fate and send him home. In the end,
But who goes home?
R.O.D.N.E.Y.
Why is he still there? He’s not a challenge threat, but he’s a strategic threat and it seems only Mike can see that. Rodney has EVERYONE (except Mike) fooled into thinking that he’s aligned with them. The Blue Collar tribe thinks that as much squawking Rodney does, he’s loyal to blue and Tyler, Carolyn and Will believe that he’s ready to jump when the time is right. Rodney can go either way pending on how tides go a camp. Someone who is that safe is a huge threat in this game.
Mike should’ve been able to put doubt about Rodney in Sierra and Dan’s minds, but his borderline annoying antics at camp don’t help his cause. He’s become the Survivor equivalent of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. He’s flown of the handle over stupid things at camp, but when the time has come that what he is saying is completely valid, his own alliance don’t really put stock in what he’s saying.
With Mike safe, what’s Rodney’s move? His plan was to split the vote between Shirin and Jenn while Mike wanted to put all their eggs in the Carolyn basket.
At tribal council, Will continued his ugliness against Shirin to the point that she broke down and revealed that she was a product of domestic violence and was appalled that most of the camp sat back smiling and didn’t defend her.
But it all came down to Dan and Sierra. Whose side did they choose? Did they believe Mike? Nope. As Jenn found herself where she’s wanted to be since Hali left… by her side on the jury.
Man Dan made a HUGE mistake not siding with Mike and it looks like next week, he’s going to regret. While he blowing up at Mike, Tyler went through his bag and discovered his advantage.
But it wasn’t all dumbs moves.
Dan didn’t use his advantage at this tribal, Carolyn is sitting pretty on her idol and Mike voted for Jenn. She will never know until the episode airs, but when she’s sitting in the jury, he knows that he has her vote, Joe’s vote and Hali vote. Well played sir.
