“Man it feels so good to play with you amateurs. You give away so much. You don’t even know enough to keep your mouth shut. Thanks for the memories.” -Boston Rob
Survivor is back and this shaping up to be a great season already. This is Survivor’s 22nd (2 a year over 11 years) so the question is always, “How do you keep it fresh?” Survivor has responded by adding to wrinkles to the game. The first is that both Boston Rob and Russell Hance will be returning to the game to play against each other. They are regular contestants with no special provisions. It would seem too obvious to just vote these two very strong players out first, so Survivor installed their 2nd wrinkle: Redemption Island. After you are voted out, you go to Redemption Island where you await the next contestant who’s voted out and there you have a duel to see who stays.
I have a lot of questions surrounding Redemption Island. First, does the duel take place right away when the 2nd member shows up? This would not allow for strategy to be talked. I think Survivor is always better when more players are playing a strategic game. Second, will there be a hidden immunity idol on the island? This seems unlikely as one person may find it, hide it, get eliminated and it’s gone forever. It would also seem like a third life given to a contestant who already hasn’t proven worthy. Third, when will the survivor of Redemption Island be released back into the game? It has to be post merge, but not too much after. I doubt the producer’s have a set time. I think they’ll release the player when it will most benefit the narrative. Fourth, will the other players know who’s been eliminated every challenge. I hope that they don’t know. It’ll make for more drama when they arrive back. It will also keep people from counting on a vote. Which leads me to my last question, can the Survivor be on the jury? This would make me think that they’ll be released before the next person voted out hits the jury. I know all these questions will be answered soon, but I think this element will be very dynamic.
As for the episode itself, I don’t think Survivor could have asked for a better premiere. They’ve done a great job of casting. We have lots of opinionated people and some very beautiful girls. Boston Rob’s team, Ometepe, lost the first challenge and the events that ensued were extremely entertaining. Kristina found a hidden immunity idol and wanted to make a big play early by using it to vote out Boston Rob. The problem was that she only had two other people on board. Boston Rob, being the savvy veteran that he is, anticipated that she would find it so he and his alliance already planned to split their vote to get rid of either Francesca (if Kristina played it), or Kristina (if she held onto it). Phillip, the loud mouth ex federal agent, told the girls he was with them until he heard different. At tribal council he heard an answer that he didn’t like, told Rob the plan and that Kristina had the idol. I’ve never seen so much action on a first tribal council. Kristina kept the idol and Francesca was voted out.
Kristina made the right move in not playing the idol. With Phillip’s declaration of voting for “Franchesqua” she knew it’d go her way so she has three more days guaranteed without having to play it. If she feels she needs to play it next week, another 3 days. Thus she’s guaranteed 6 days by not playing it as opposed to just 3 by playing it. Philip made the right move in abandoning the girls, but he’s still on the outside of Rob’s very large alliance. Rob can’t continue with an alliance of 7. He’ll need to pick out a select core from that group and Phillip’s only hope is to be a part of that.
As for Zapatera, Russell’s tribe, things couldn’t be better. They built a great shelter and won the first challenge. Russell made a declaration that he’s a changed player. That it would be stupid to play the game the same way. It should be noted that Russell was able to get to the finals in his second season because no one had the luxury of seeing him play. The all-star season was filming while his was airing. If other players had a chance to scout him, no way he lasts that long. So his tribe members are wise to his tricks and it looks like they’re going to vote him out at first chance. Russell’s best chance is to ingratiate himself with a core of four people, tell them his game plan and be candid. He can’t do all the backstabbing he did before. He is going to have to play the game differently.
I’ll pick who I think is going to win every week. I’ll keep that pick until they’re voted out. This first one is a crap shoot, but if I had to blindly pick a winner I’ll go with Mike, the ex military soldier on Zapatera tribe.
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