Survivor: Cook Islands - Aired Nov. 24 - Commentary
I really want to dislike the choice for eviction this week, but I can't. For the Aitu tribe, it does make sense. Jonathan, on the other hand, made quite a bone-headed move that may have screwed him out of a million dollars, even though it may well have got him some of that sweet second place dough. So maybe it might not be so bone-headed after all. Especially if he had no chance of winning anyway.
But before we get more into that, let me just say it's nice to see someone playing a little smarter and willing to take a little more risk with the hidden immunity idol this season, not like last time around when Terry could have used it to get the numbers on his side, but instead used it as a back-up in case he lost a challenge (his alliance worshipped him, so if he kept the numbers on his side he wouldn't have needed it).
Yul, on the other hand, is rocking it. He knew his alliance was in trouble, so he was willing to share the information with it, and formulate a plan that would not only keep them safe, but even the playing field (and damn, he even managed to get the numbers in their favour, he's that good). If anyone deserves to win, it's Yul.
Or Ozzy. He has been kicking so much ass in the competitions. And was anyone stupid enough to bet against him in the Hanging-Onto-The-Pole challenge? When I saw that, I knew he had this one in the bag. If anything, this challenge was tailor-made to get Aitu's plan working optimally.
In case you missed it, the plan was to try and swing Jonathan back to their side so they'd have the numbers to vote out someone from Raro, and failing that, Yul was willing to sacrifice the hidden immunity idol by playing it, thus voting out the next highest vote getter. Luckily, Jonathan was so terrified that he'd be that next highest vote getter, Yul was able to swing him, though it did take showing him the idol to do it.
By swinging to the other side a second time, Jonathan just made himself the most hated person on that island. On the other hand, it also made him the most attractive choice for everyone to take to the final two with them, something Yul has already noticed. It also looks to have the added effect of giving us much drama next week, with the treacherous, back-stabbing Candice actually being hypocritical enough to try and take the moral high road over Jonathan. Oh, that's going to be fun to see!
Here's the thing though... Jonathan not only didn't have to swing, he could have been a bit of a hero with Raro. Sure, both Ozzy and Yul had immunity, but why are those the only two Aituians (?) they could possibly vote for? All Raro had to do was make Aitu think they're voting for Yul, but instead vote for Sundra or Becky. That would have cut their number down to three, because Yul would have been holding on to the hidden idol, and then next week they'd have even more room to work.
Of course, for that to work it would require Raro not being... what's a good for it? Morons. Yeah, that'll do it. Jonathan tried floating the idea of Yul having the idol past them, but they shot it down so quickly there's no way anyone with a scrap of intelligence should stick with that alliance of fools.
And speaking of not too smart, I want to like Nate, I really do. But after the double vote last week where he found himself alone as the sole surviving person of colour in the middle of the original caucasian tribe, why alarm bells weren't going off in his head, I don't know. Your tribe voted off Jenny before Jonathan, big guy! You should be sweating bullets! Especially with Adam being as close to Candice as he is!
I would have normally preferred Adam to be the one to go, but there are reasons that Nate made sense, both for Jonathan and for Aitu. For Aitu, it gave Jonathan a little more incentive to flip by giving him the choice of who goes, plus Nate was getting a little too chummy with Ozzy to want to keep him around. For Jonathan, he was going to piss off Raro no matter what he did, but at least this way gives him hope that if things go awry again, maybe, just maybe he might be able to get the original caucasian tribe to stick together and keep him around. That's not going to happen. More importantly, there was a possibility of Nate flipping to Aitu, so this keeps that from happening and keeps his spot safe.
So yes, I wanted Adam gone, but strategically, this was actually the best move.
For the record, I totally called the merge last week, but it's not like it was hard. When previews show Yul and Ozzy talking about turning the game around with the hidden immunity idol, it's not a stretch to see that a merge must have happened.
But before we get more into that, let me just say it's nice to see someone playing a little smarter and willing to take a little more risk with the hidden immunity idol this season, not like last time around when Terry could have used it to get the numbers on his side, but instead used it as a back-up in case he lost a challenge (his alliance worshipped him, so if he kept the numbers on his side he wouldn't have needed it).
Yul, on the other hand, is rocking it. He knew his alliance was in trouble, so he was willing to share the information with it, and formulate a plan that would not only keep them safe, but even the playing field (and damn, he even managed to get the numbers in their favour, he's that good). If anyone deserves to win, it's Yul.
Or Ozzy. He has been kicking so much ass in the competitions. And was anyone stupid enough to bet against him in the Hanging-Onto-The-Pole challenge? When I saw that, I knew he had this one in the bag. If anything, this challenge was tailor-made to get Aitu's plan working optimally.
In case you missed it, the plan was to try and swing Jonathan back to their side so they'd have the numbers to vote out someone from Raro, and failing that, Yul was willing to sacrifice the hidden immunity idol by playing it, thus voting out the next highest vote getter. Luckily, Jonathan was so terrified that he'd be that next highest vote getter, Yul was able to swing him, though it did take showing him the idol to do it.
By swinging to the other side a second time, Jonathan just made himself the most hated person on that island. On the other hand, it also made him the most attractive choice for everyone to take to the final two with them, something Yul has already noticed. It also looks to have the added effect of giving us much drama next week, with the treacherous, back-stabbing Candice actually being hypocritical enough to try and take the moral high road over Jonathan. Oh, that's going to be fun to see!
Here's the thing though... Jonathan not only didn't have to swing, he could have been a bit of a hero with Raro. Sure, both Ozzy and Yul had immunity, but why are those the only two Aituians (?) they could possibly vote for? All Raro had to do was make Aitu think they're voting for Yul, but instead vote for Sundra or Becky. That would have cut their number down to three, because Yul would have been holding on to the hidden idol, and then next week they'd have even more room to work.
Of course, for that to work it would require Raro not being... what's a good for it? Morons. Yeah, that'll do it. Jonathan tried floating the idea of Yul having the idol past them, but they shot it down so quickly there's no way anyone with a scrap of intelligence should stick with that alliance of fools.
And speaking of not too smart, I want to like Nate, I really do. But after the double vote last week where he found himself alone as the sole surviving person of colour in the middle of the original caucasian tribe, why alarm bells weren't going off in his head, I don't know. Your tribe voted off Jenny before Jonathan, big guy! You should be sweating bullets! Especially with Adam being as close to Candice as he is!
I would have normally preferred Adam to be the one to go, but there are reasons that Nate made sense, both for Jonathan and for Aitu. For Aitu, it gave Jonathan a little more incentive to flip by giving him the choice of who goes, plus Nate was getting a little too chummy with Ozzy to want to keep him around. For Jonathan, he was going to piss off Raro no matter what he did, but at least this way gives him hope that if things go awry again, maybe, just maybe he might be able to get the original caucasian tribe to stick together and keep him around. That's not going to happen. More importantly, there was a possibility of Nate flipping to Aitu, so this keeps that from happening and keeps his spot safe.
So yes, I wanted Adam gone, but strategically, this was actually the best move.
For the record, I totally called the merge last week, but it's not like it was hard. When previews show Yul and Ozzy talking about turning the game around with the hidden immunity idol, it's not a stretch to see that a merge must have happened.
posted by Tabby at 8:13 a.m.
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