What Andy's Watching: Survivor

Guest blogger Andy offers his critique of the last two episodes of this season of "Survivor."

Survivor: Season 21, Episode 5 & 6 “Turf Wars” & “Worst Case Scenario” (B-)

This season kind of bores me a bit. Maybe because the past two seasons had Russell on them and he was ridiculously entertaining to watch, whether you liked him or hated him. He would do crazy shenanigans like surprising everyone at tribal council that he has the Hidden Immunity Idol, wearing it around his neck, and then not playing it. He was amazing at reading people and calling their bluffs.

For this season, I think the strongest player in the game is Brenda. She reminds me a bit of Parvati from previous seasons. She's a bit of a flirt, doesn't seem outwardly dangerous, but still is conniving.

In Episode 5, the tribes are mixed up a bit, leaving Marty's plans to dominate his tribe afoul. Finally, finally, finally we have an episode with separate reward and immunity challenges. Why don't they always have that? Thankfully, no more Medallion of Power, which was just a stupid gimmick. With the new tribes, it doesn't seem like one team is overpowered over the other one (however, whichever tribe has Dan is at a disadvantage, and should vote him out ASAP. Spoiler alert: They won't).

Now on to Episode 6...

Wowzers, a double elimination episode, definitely didn't see that coming. According to Jeff Probst's blog, the reason for a double elimination episode is simple. It really sucks when a person quits in the middle of the season because that screws everything up. Originally, they started with 16 contestants, and if someone quit, it really screws with the flow of the game. If they raise it to 18 players, then there
will be an uneven about of males and females on the two tribes. So that leaves 20 players at the start of the season, but there is a problem with having so many people because its harder for the audience to be familiar with everyone, and also because there is a bunch of extra players. Thus, the need for a double elimination comes into play.

In my opinion, don't have a season with two people named Jimmy and two people named Kelly. That should be a no brainer if you don't want to confuse the audience.

On to Tribal Council.... Very odd decision by La Flor not to get rid of Marty.

It was smart to split the votes between him and Kelly in order to flush out the idol. If Marty uses the idol, then Kelly gets voted out. If Marty doesn't use the idol, then it's a tie and a revote is done. In that situation, it is clear that Marty should be voted out. But he wasn't because the tribe was more scared that Kelly's fake leg will get sympathy votes in the end. It probably would, but at the current moment, Marty is much more of a threat.

Back at Espada, its really surprising that Dan still manages to stay in the game. He outwardly says that he won't be able to compete in all the challenges. He's sat out many of them, it's hard to keep track. And yet, they still keep him in because he is not a threat. Smart in a way, but I'm still waiting for the day when he really costs them a challenge. Still, he might not get voted out.

Isn't there a rule in past seasons that you can't sit out two challenges in a row? Didn't Dan sit out a hundred challenges or something? So of course, at Tribal Council Yve, is voted out because she is a competitor. The weak survive while the strongest ones get picked off.