Survivor: Fiji - Aired March 21

I wonder if Survivor's producers, after Stephenie became the last member standing of the Ulong tribe a few seasons back, came up with something they might possibly call the "Palau Contingency", a plan disguised as a twist just in case one tribe keeps getting their butts handed to them immunity after immunity. Heck, at least Ulong managed to win a reward challenge or two. Ravu can barely even win our sympathy.
This possible contingency plan likely states that if one tribe loses often enough, rather than have them just keep losing until the merge, things will be shaken up and the tribes remixed.
After all, what are the odds that this particular twist would happen on the season where one tribe wouldn't win a challenge if it was "Guess which hand I'm hiding a quarter in"?
So the tribes were reforming. Earl from Ravu and Edgardo from Moto got to be the "captains" and choose who they'd like to have on their teams. To nobody's surprise on the first season where only members of one sex have been voted out so far, they each pick a guy. Everyone had to pick from the opposing tribe, so Edgardo chose Mookie and Earl chose "Boo". Yeah. Mookie picked a guy too, but "Boo" chose Michelle. Oh! That was unexpected! Edgardo's team picked man after man, but Michelle called out Cassandra's name! Don't you get it, Michelle? You have to choose strong! STRONG!
It was interesting to see it all shape up. Earl's team ended up with Stacy and Yau-Man as well, while the "weakest" member of Edgardo's team was Anthony. Personally, I think the weakest member of that tribe is "Rocky", but more on that later.
It did come down to Yau-Man versus Lisi at the end, and when Yau-Man was picked, Lisi was sent off to Exile Island where she would remain until after Tribal Council, when she would then join the losing tribe. Like that worked out really well for Sylvia.
Lisi didn't take any of this well and started talking about how her time on Survivor was over, raising the ire of host Jeff Probst. Jeff doesn't like to hear people talk about quitting, damn it! I'm sure he's got Osten locked away in a dungeon somewhere, but the FBI won't take my calls seriously enough to investigate.
After the tribes were picked and Lisi was carted off to her snake-infested island, there was only one matter left to settle. Who would get the luxury of Moto's camp?
In one of the greatest reward challenges ever, Edgardo got to pick one of two buffs out of a bag!
Sometimes good things do happen in life, and Edgardo picked the Ravu buff, meaning this new Ravu tribe would have to go back to the crappy Ravu camp and the new Moto would get to go on to the sweet island life.
I admit, I was a bit biased against Edgardo's tribe because it was all men. The sexist nature of much of the voting has driven me to that. Ravu kept voting out woman after woman, yet they still kept losing. This fetish for physical strength obviously hasn't been the issue. And never mind that a couple of the woman voted out were physically stronger than Yau-Man. He's a man, it even says so in his name! That makes him strong! Seriously, it's been driving me crazy.
This kind of sexism isn't new to Survivor, but it reached new lows with this episode and with this new Ravu tribe. I'm not saying they're Saudi or Taliban bad, but damn, the Ravu tribesmen were full of themselves for having penises and as such would own the rest of the season! Booya!
In 14 seasons of Survivor, there were tribes I've wanted to win or lose so bad I could taste it. The aforementioned Ulong in Palau, Morgan in the Pearl Islands, Yasur on Vanuatu, and heck, Aitu last season, all teams I loved to see win and really, so very much wanted to see win. None of it has come close to how much I wanted to see Moto win immunity this week and send the sexist pigs to Tribal Council. Granted, not all of them are sexist. Anthony didn't come across that way, and the guy was seen as the weakest member of the tribe and treated like it. Especially by "Rocky".
Screw it, "Rocky". That's the last time I'm going to use that stupid nickname on you, James. Up until now, James has been loud and obnoxious with the worst of his sexism coming out when he couldn't stand Rita talking as a woman with another woman. His hatred of women came out in full force in this episode, along with his hatred of men he perceives as weak, or as he kept referring to Anthony, "effeminate".
Ladies and Gentlemen, we finally have a full-blown villain for this season. Unfortunately, he's not an entertaining one like Mirna and Charla are on The Amazing Race. No, sadly he's just a homophobic, misogynistic asshole with too high an opinion of himself. It's my blog, I can use that language if I want.
It was impossible to take him seriously when he told us that he loves women. He loves talking to them, though that claim doesn't hold up well considering that he went after Rita because she, you know, talked. He loves being with them, he loves paying for sex with them... Okay, he didn't say that last part, but he clearly sees women who aren't his family as lesser beings and quite possibly as objects. Hell, how did he insult Anthony? But comparing him to a woman and calling him "effeminate". That brought to light not only his misogyny, but his homophobia too. If the cameras weren't on him, I wonder if he would have used even more derogatory terminology. Maybe he did, but the producers opted not to show it.
Oh, and he's a bully too. A misogynistic, homophobic bully. The way he treated Anthony around camp, expecting the man to do all his work while putting up with his verbal assaults was horrendous. Good on Anthony on not letting loose and punching him in the throat, because damn, James deserved it.
So yeah, James has now beaten "Jonny Fairplay", Scout, and Twila as my most disliked Survivor contestant ever. Congratulations, jackass.
I thought it would be too much to ask after the testosterone squad ended up as Ravu that they'd also lose the immunity. Daaaaaamn, I wanted them to lose. There's no way to get such goodness twice in one episode.
The great thing about watching it on tape, which is what I did with this episode, is being able to fast forward through the competition. There was just too much at stake for me to be able to handle the mistake. Once Moto won and I let the cheers out, I rewound it and watched everything unfold. Damn, that was the sweetest win ever.
Now we were finally going to get to see a man voted out. It wasn't as good as it would have been if there would have been at least one woman on that tribe (Lisi will be joining them next week, so after the way she treated "Dreamz" and Cassandra, maybe there really is some karma in the universe), but it was going to be nice to see.
Unfortunately it was looking like that man was going to be Anthony, someone James convinced everyone else is the weakest link. Anthony didn't just stand by and let this happen though. He made sure he let the others know just how much negativity James brings to the tribe, and oh, does he ever.
Instead of all those women being voted out one by one, I wonder how much better Ravu would have been if they got rid of James early. He hasn't done anything to keep them in contention at the challenges, and he has been a hugely negative force in camp. There was no reason to get rid of Rita other than that she annoyed him, and he's quickly turned on any alliances he's had.
One small problem that escaped both James and Anthony is that by turning on themselves, neither of them are going to have numbers on their side. Whichever one goes, that leaves the other and Mookie as the only two original members of Ravu, and when Lisi joins them next week, that will be Edgardo, Alex, "Dreamz" and Lisi from the original Moto against Mookie and whoever is left. What they needed to do was stick together, and feel out who would most likely flip from Moto. Last week "Dreamz" couldn't wait for the merge so he could change sides. Nobody but us knew this, but nobody will know it if they don't try to find out these things.
Earl on the new Moto is becoming Realivision's choice to win this season. He was smart enough to know that numbers matter on Survivor, and he was able to get Cassandra over on his side. Luckily they never had to go to Tribal Council, but if they did, I strongly suspect it would have been a former Moto member going home. Sadly it would have been Stacy as the only other choice would have been "Boo" and why would they vote him off when there's another woman they could send packing? Damn, I'm really hoping the women have noticed this particular numbers issue. The best they (and Yau-Man) can hope for now is that once the merge happens, the manly men start picking each other off.
There is an amazing lack of foresight on the show this season. The only people we've seen really thinking ahead have been Alex, Earl, and "Dreamz". Most of the old Moto were happy where they were, and the old Ravu were just wanting to try and win the next challenge, concentrating on strength even though it was puzzles that kept doing them in. This is making any actual strategizing a breath of fresh air. Too bad for the former Ravu that they're stuck with a genius like James on the new Ravu. Done right, this mixing of the tribes could have been the best thing that ever happened to them.
Before getting to Tribal Council, something happened on the new Ravu that left me questioning the producers. They caught fish. Normally this wouldn't be worth noting, but the old Ravu never got fishing equipment. So how did the new tribe get fishing line? If they're going to do this twist, then the new tribes should have exactly what the old tribes did, nothing more, nothing less.
Okay, Tribal Council. As expected, it was down to James versus Anthony. James continued to be a bully, calling Anthony "effeminate" and berated him for his lack of social skills. You may think you do, but you don't truly know the meaning of "irony" until you've seen James bitching about someone else's lack of social skills.
The looks on the faces of the men who weren't going home as James kept flapping his hateful gums gave me hope. Anthony did tell them what a negative influence this ass was, and they were obviously seeing it. Or just feeling bad for Anthony. I really hope they weren't feeling bad for Anthony because they felt like this crap was something he needed to hear. He doesn't. He's fine just the way he is. I'll take a dozen of him over one James any day.
I did like how he stuck up for himself, though I would have thrown a couple of f-bombs at the f-wad. He wondered if being a jerk was what it took to be a strong, manly man, and he didn't think they needed the extra drama and negativity in camp. Well, maybe he should have been an ass, because the new Ravu voted him out.
Unbelievable. James is an idiot and has never, as far as I can remember, been a physical asset. Maybe because he's so loud and obnoxious he comes across as stronger than he is, but he's only going to keep dragging Ravu down for as long as he's in the game.
Though with the new tribe dynamics and wanting to see Ravu keep losing, I'm not so sure that's a bad thing.