Each week on this blog, I'll write up some thoughts paired with a short video on the latest episode of Survivor. Because Survivor is the most awesome reality show on television. Who's with me?!
The Survivor: Philippines finale is impending... and in my excitement and impatience, what better to do than watch all the Ponderosa videos back to back? RC, Jeff, Artis, Pete, Penner, Carter and Abi all get put under my Survivor-fan-oscope... and the winners for favorite are by far Penner, followed by Pete. And maybe, surprisingly, Abi.
All in all, I'm confident this jury will take their voting responsibility seriously and aside from RC, who has reserved all her bitterness for people who are now out of the game anyway, they can all remove their emotions from the vote and make reasonable decisions. Bring it on, Survivor!
Favorite quote of Ponderosa: "Recognizing yourself is very powerful." -Pete
The Immunity Idol that magically protects the
contestant most in need...
The big question at hand in this episode was: strategy or morale? It's a tough one and while as a viewer (in my most level-headed moments at least), I'm mostly voting for strategy (with a bit of heart, always!), Abi makes these polarities particularly difficult to juggle.
Now Carter is a bit of an enigma to me as a viewer. It seems people on the island connect with him quite well in person -- albeit not enough to keep him in a final alliance -- and yet he seems very simplistic about his game to me. I do believe he's a physical threat, but it doesn't seem like he's been particularly strategic throughout the game. That said, his "benevolence" during the Survivor auction and his lack of enemies do make him a social threat too. Making it to the end means he checks the "outlasting" box too. With all that laid out this way, I see why it was indeed the right move to vote him out over Abi, but I feel like the threat he poses is a fact beyond his conscious control, so that takes away from his game play for me.
Back to the vote, choosing strategy over moral here is all the more impressive when you realize how hard it was to do too, just knowing that you'll have to withstand Abi for an additional three days (though I bet she thinks they made it because of her 'brilliant' fake idol game play). Just check out this article on how listening to people complain is bad for you and can actually "make you dumb." Turns out, season 25 has become about outliving, outplaying, outlasting... and outbearing Abi's presence. So far into the game though, why not bear her a little longer and take her to the end? Now that will be the question for next episode!
