The Moto and Ravu tribes merge.
Survivor: Fiji Blog
10th Elimination: Michelle
Wow. Where do I even begin? This episode of Survivor: Fiji was just unreal. There were just so many twists and dumb moves made. I’m not sure if I’ll even be able to cover them all! This had to be one of the best episodes of all time! Onto the blog…
1. These people are’t smart. So the tribes get tree mail telling them to pack up their personal belongings and go to Exile Island for what appears to be the merge. The general consensus among the players is that everyone is going to live on Exile Island. While it would have been a unique twist, I couldn’t help but be skeptical. Do you really think that the producers of this show are going to stick ten people on an island swarming with poisonous sea snakes? One person for a few days is one thing. But the entire cast for the rest of the season? Plus, moving them there would eliminate Exile Island from the game and ruin the potential strategy. It just didn’t make sense to me.
So sure enough, the survivors get to Exile and find their new buffs, along with a message that they’ll be heading back to the old Moto beach to live. At this point, everyone is high-fiving and pumped about the beds they’ll be sleeping in and the toilet’s they’ll be, er, be taking care of business in for the rest of the show. And as they’re all flipping out like they just won the Powerball, I wondered for a split second why the producers would let them finish out the game with all the cushy luxuries. I mean, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of Survivor? And after that split second, almost before I could finish the thought, I realized that the reason the survivors had to go to Exile Island was so the show’s crew could clear out Moto beach and leave them with nothing. Which to the complete shock of the players, is exactly what they did.
Look, I’m not trying to toot my own horn here. I just find it hard to believe that nobody in a group of ten people who had at least an hour to think about it, couldn’t reach the conclusion that I did in about 1.5 seconds. This clearly means one of two things: Either an editing job took place to make it look like everyone was surprised, or these people just aren’t that smart. My money’s on the second option.
2. These people really aren’t smart. So everybody’s back on Moto beach, and now the scrambling begins. Here’s the way the alliances were set up, and interestingly, it’s also exactly how anyone who was really strategizing should have assumed the alliances were set up.
Alliance 1: Earl, Yao Man, Michelle, Cassandra
Alliance 2: Edgardo, Alex, Mookie, Dreamz
On the fence: Boo, Stacy
As a player in the game, this is how you should be looking at this scenario:
Boo and Stacy are the absolute key to the game. Whoever can woo them over has a 6-4 advantage and is in complete control of the game. Also, seeing as they were semi-outcasts after the teams switched up, it’s highly likely that they’ll be open to defecting over to Edgardo and Alex.
Mookie, Cassandra, and Dreamz are all possible defectors as well. However, seeing as none of them were overly close with their original tribes, it’s best to suspect that they’ll be voting with their tribemates from after the switch-up.
And one finaly key to the puzzle – Dreamz is completely unreliable and easily manipulated. Never, ever depend on him.
That’s basically all you need to know going into the merge. And yes, it’s easier for me to come up with these strategic points as I’m a view at home who knows everyone’s intentions. But I don’t think that these observations are so advanced that nobody actually playing the game could come up with them. Yet nobody did. So what happened?
You’ve got Yao Man and Cassandra singing like canaries to Mookie and Dreamz about their entire alliances strategy. Telling them that Boo and then Stacy are the next to go.
You’ve got Mookie, Dreamz, Alex, and Edgardo failing to capitalize on the situation by letting Boo and Stacy know that they’re on the chopping block, which would have made them jump sides and put them all at a 6-4 advantage.
You’ve got Mookie telling Dreamz that he’s got the immunity idol, which immediately makes Dreamz uber paranoid, and almost guarantees that he’ll yap to Cassandra about it.
And you’ve got Alex and Edgardo managing to swing Stacy, with the plan to vote off Boo this time around and give their alliance a 5-4 advantage, only to have Mookie and Dreamz start flipping out because they think that Alex, Edgardo, and Stacy will turn on them once it gets down to the final five.
Just horrible, horrible play across the board.
3. These people are just plain dumb. So at the immunity challenge, Jeff pulls the rug out from under everyone’s plans, or lack thereof, by dividing the survivors into two groups that will fight for immunity. Immediately, I start scanning Edgardo’s team to see if he’s got numbers if his team loses and has to go to tribal council…
Doh! He was practically a dead man as he got stuck with Earl, Yao Man, Cassandra, and Boo. I wasn’t counting on Mookie doing the right thing and slipping him the immunity idol, so my only hope was that if Edgardo’s team did lose, Earl’s crew would go through with their dumb plan to eliminate Boo. Cause I mean, why would you eliminate a definite enemy when you could pick off somebody who might actually be on your side?
Of course none of my worrying was necessary as Edgardo’s team cruised to a victory, sending Alex, Mookie, Dreamz, Stacy, and Michelle to tribal council immediately. The “immediatly” part was huge because it left no time for Alex to talk some sense into Mookie and Dreamz, who had been dead-set against Stacy earlier. It also didn’t allow Yao Man to pull a fast one and slip Michelle the immunity idol to keep his alliance strong.
So the five go to tribal council, and Jeff Probst, being the master that he his, starts hardballing them with questions like “Alex, why would you vote off Dreamz?”. Basically, this allowed anyone with a brain, which in this case included only Alex and Michelle, to hint to the other survivors what their votes would be. Alex made it clear that Michelle was who he was gunning for, and at this point, if you’re Mookie and Dreamz, if for no other reason than pure immediate self-preservation, you would have to vote with him. But like I said above, these people are just plain dumb. Only one got the memo, which lead to a tense 3-2 standoff between Stacy and Michelle. Thankfully for my pick, Edgardo, Michelle was the one to go.
Now I don’t know if it was Dreamz or Mookie who suffered a mental implosion and voted against Stacy, but whoever it was, it was one of the dumbest moves I’ve ever seen on this show. You’re in a fight to gain the numbers. Stacy is on your side. Michelle isn’t on your side. Why, why, why, why, why would you try and vote Stacy out??? Why?
And even if you’re worried that Edgardo and Alex may team up with Stacy in the final three and sell you out, why don’t you think two steps ahead? If you really believe you’re going to be down 3-2 in the final five, then when it comes to the final seven, make a pact with the other two people left! That gives you a 4-3 advantage and you pick off Alex, Edgardo, and Stacy. It’s not that hard!
But nobody, and I mean nobody is thinking clearly on this show right now. In fact, the only three people with their heads even half-way in the game are Earl, Alex, and Edgardo. The other six are just on a mission to destroy their shot at a million bucks. Like I said at the beginning, it’s unreal.
I seriously have no idea what to expect. Not when the previews show Mookie and Dreamz fighting about the vote at tribal council. And especially not when they show Dreamz telling Cassandra that Mookie has the idol. Could it just be Dreamz playing with her? It’s possible that it’s all just a ruse so that Cassandra’s alliance doesn’t vote for Mookie and gets tricked into voting for Alex, who was slipped the idol. But remember who we’re dealing with, here.
Yeah, things are definitely getting very, very interesting…
