Leslie gets voted off Survivor: China.
Survivor: China Blog
3rd Elimination: Leslie
It’s a rare event when the decision to vote off the first member of a tribe is a controversial one. Normally there’s always some weakling or misfit who’s the clear-cut choice to be sent home. But as the votes were being written down last night, I had absolutely no idea who was going home. Don’t get me wrong, I knew who absolutely should go home, but the survivors don’t always follow my train of logic. As you’ve probably figured out by now given the bold wording at the top and the big picture to the left, it was Leslie, the Christian Radio Talk Show Host who was sent packing. I’ll get into all the strategy involved in the decision as well as what it means for the rest of the game in a few paragraphs. But first, I’d like to start off with two other observations…
1. Jean-Robert is a creep.
When the women of Survivor signed up for the game, they probably thought that the bugs, lack of food, and lack of shelter would be the most difficult parts of the game. Little did they know there was also the prospect of getting put on the same team as Jean-Robert. The guy skeeves me out and I’m a guy myself. I can’t imagine what it must be like for those women who have to worry about him grinding up against them at night and snoring in their ear. Gross. If I were them I may have taken my chances with the panda bears and slept in the woods. At least if they start nibbling on you in the middle of the night you won’t come down with syphilis.
Then there was his little conversation in the water with James the Gravedigger in which Jean-Robert started referring to Courtney as “some @$$”. As it would happen, the two doofuses, who clearly haven’t grasped the concept of whispering, were carrying on this discussion well within ear-shot of Todd and Courtney. I can only imagine what was going on in her head as she listened to them talk about her. I mean, how would you feel if you were a 65 lb. blonde chick who suddenly discovered that you were living out in the wild with two gigantic, sleezy guys who wanted to get with you, and the person most likely to come to your defense was a 67 lb. gay Mormon flight attendant?
2. Courtney is not healthy.
Despite the fact that she makes Nicole Richie look like Delta Burke, I never really considered Courtney to be a huge liability to her tribe. There’s plenty of other girls running who have gone on Survivor without a lot of meat on their bones and done just fine. If you want some examples, look no farther than million-dollar winners Tina, Jenna, Amber, and Danni. However, Courtney’s performance during the immunity challenge made it clear that something’s physically wrong with her and her slight frame may be due to more than “genetics” as she claims on the show’s official website.
During the challenge, each team had to send four different people to hack through some wood blocks with a machete and then cut a rope supporting some weights. Courtney started off for her tribe and… Well, I don’t even know how to describe what happened. Let’s just say that all four members of the yellow tribe got through their blocks before Courtney was even half-way done, and the only reason she even finished was by sliding the blocks out of the way and sawing her way slowly through the rope. Of course her utter futility cost the Red tribe it’s first immunity challenge. But on the bright side, it did lead to this exchange:
Me to the fiance’: “I think she has muscular dystrophy.”
Courtney tries to swing the machete and slice the rope suspending the weights, only her lack of strength causes the machete to bounce off the rope.
Me: “I think I just insulted everyone with muscular dystrophy.”
3. Christian to the Lions
Now it’s time to talk some strategy! With the Red team going to tribal council, it was time to figure out who the first person voted off should be. The tribe clearly had two major issues that needed to be addressed: The weakness of the females and the sliminess of Jean-Robert.
Pros of Keeping Jean-Robert: He’s a big strong guy that helps give his tribe a major advantage. When the three heavyweights of Aaron, James, and Jean-Robert face off against the scrawnier Dave, Erik, and Frosti of the Yellow Tribe, it’s no contest. Leveling that playing field could really open up the Red Tribe to losing some more immunity challenges as most of the early contests focus heavily on strength.
Cons of Keeping Jean-Robert: He’s a borderline sex-offender.
Pros of Keeping Courtney: From my perspective as somebody who’s picked Todd to win it all, keeping Courtney in the game is a huge piece of the puzzle. Getting her to the final tribal council would give Todd the majority of the million-dollar vote despite the many betrayals he’ll likely have to carry out to make it all the way. However, for those not in the Todd/Amanada/Aaron alliance, the only real benefit to keeping Courtney around is that it allows you to rid the camp of Jean-Robert.
Cons of Keeping Courtney: The potential of a repeat performance in the next immunity challenge.
Pros of Keeping Leslie: She’s not as disgusting as Jean-Robert and by default is stronger than Courtney. She’s also a rather pleasant person to be around and can probably be easily manipulated later on.
Cons of Keeping Leslie: Up until she got kidnapped by the Yellow Tribe and started getting all “buddy buddy” with the enemy, there were none. But once she returned to her tribe and made it clear she had sung like a canary about their situation and further commented on how there were three other Christians on that team, the warning signs started sounding loud and clear. Remember, I said above that Leslie is easy to manipulate. That’s a good thing if you’re the one doing the manipulating, but if you think for a second that your enemy may have gotten to her, you have to dispose of her before it comes back to bite you. Leslie absolutely had to go ASAP.
Much to my disappointment, Todd failed to pick up on this strategic nugget and was still too focused on getting rid of Jean-Robert. Getting rid of a strong slime ball to keep your ally is one thing. But getting rid of a strong slime ball and keeping a major liability who’s likely to flop is just dumb. While it is true that Todd eventually voted for Leslie, I have a feeling it was out of an obligation to stay on the side of the majority rather than actually wanting to vote her out. Up until this point, I had backed Todd’s decision-making skills 100%. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if he recovers from this strategic slip up.
Survivor Power Poll:
| Ranking | Player | Comments | Last Week |
| 16 | Chicken | Eliminated. | 16 |
| 15 | Ashley | Eliminated. | 15 |
| 14 | Leslie | Eliminated. | 4 |
| 13 |
Jean-Robert |
If anyone was ever a lock to go next on his tribe, it’s him. | 13 |
| 12 |
Sherea |
Her outburst on the previews didn’t look overly sane. | 12 |
| 11 | Dave | He’s driving everyone crazy! | 9 |
| 10 | Peih-Gee | Amazingly, Dave has managed to be more annoying than she is. | 14 |
| 9 | Denise | Does she talk? I have no idea. | 11 |
| 8 | James | Too much of a physical threat, which will likely bite him after the merge. | 6 |
| 7 | Frosti | I still refuse to believe a guy name Frosti will win this game. | 8 |
| 6 | Erik | If he can somehow get the numbers on his side, the game could be his. | 9 |
| 5 | Jaime | Watch out for her to be the person who sneaks her way into the final despite being outnumbered 5-1 down the stretch. | 7 |
| 4 | Aaron | He’ll have to run the table in the final five to win this game. | 5 |
| 3 | Courtney | Her mean streak makes her destined to be the runner-up. | 3 |
| 2 | Todd | He has to play more with his head and a little less with his emotions. | 2 |
| 1 | Amanda | She’s played the perfect game so far. | 1 |
Look at that! All nice and organized like something straight off of ESPN.com! I told you Survivor would soon replace the NHL as the nation’s 4th sport…
