Parity comes to 'Survivor: Gabon'
Welcome back for another week from the wilds of Africa. I hope all of you tuned in for the vice presidential debate before the Survivor: Gabon this evening. Setting aside other concerns to see who is going to be voted out of Africa for an evening is fun, even important, but the other vote that was discussed tonight is vital. My apologies for getting serious, but the economy's pissing me off.
Quote "Team of Idiots" unquote. Fang is busy passing out congratulations after voting out another of their weakest mates. If they don't buck up, there will be a lot of reasons to congratulate forthcoming. Whether you like the lack of tribal balance in Survivor or hate it, it's pretty clear that one tribe is dominating at the outset.
You can't strip me from this pole. Rice is running low at Fang, and Randy steps forward with the idea of rationing. GC bristles under his suggestion, and accuses Randy of trying to pick up the reins of leadership. It's pretty sad when someone with as many rough edges as Randy is the unifying force on that tribe. I'd slow your roll, GC, or you'll be rolling your way out of there.
Kota, with few other concerns to occupy themselves, set to firming up their alliances. Ace is the dividing factor here, but unfortunately for him, Sugar is the only one falling firmly on his side of the divide.
At the challenge, the tribes must drag members of the opposite tribe off of a post and across a boundary line. First to two wins comfort items. Ace and Dan take their positions on the posts and Ace hangs on while Dan is dragged out. GC, in addition to being a malcontent, cadillacs his way through the challenge. Paloma is quickly dragged off by Crystal and Randy. Ace and Dan take the pole positions once again, after a very close battle, Fang's muscle proves to be the deciding factor as they win their first challenge and reward. Sugar is chosen to go to Exile Island, and Fang takes home blankets, pillows and mats.
What a difference a win/loss makes. Fang celebrates their first win back at camp, and they look like a whole different tribe. Kota starts out reassuring themselves, but they quickly find a pint-sized scapegoat for the loss in Paloma. Friction between Paloma and Ace is fast developing, and they are the early favorites for elimination should Kota go to tribal.
At Exile, Sugar wisely chooses clue over comfort, and searches for the idol. After stumbling through the jungle and channeling Kate Capshaw's reaction to the bugs in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, she finds the sandy crater of lore. Sugar makes short work of finding the next clue in the crater, and quickly finds her way to the third one hidden in a tree. Her success emboldens her and gives her confidence, and leads her to what proves to be the final clue. Sugar's near-constant babbling gives me 
the feeling that Sugar is the kind of person that talks to themselves quite a bit, but she manages to do it in a way that's not annoying. Yet.
After fording a swamp, she finds the valuable idol. She credits both herself and her father for her significant discovery. Should Kota go to tribal this episode, the idol and her allegiance to Ace may well provide a significant swing after the sun goes down.
The tide turns. Back at Kota, Ace is working on Bob and hunting down Paloma. Bob's not convinced, and believes that Sugar should be on the block. Corinne extends Bob an invite into her alliance with Charlie, Marcus and Jackie.
Tree mail heralds the onset of this week's immunity challenge and the tribes meet on an open field for battle. Players must launch themselves down a slip and slide and into a pond to recover tiles that can be assembled to form a math puzzle (you ready Bob?) The puzzle's solution will provide the combination to a chest which holds a hatchet which can be used to chop a rope and raise a flag in victory. Crystal provides an early lead for Fang, but it quickly evaporates. Surprisingly, the physics teacher is unable to work out the solution to the math problem, and Ken overcomes Kota's lead to win the challenge for his tribe. Alright, I understand the physics and mathematics aren't the same subject, but come on. I mean, ya know? Honestly, people...
Jeff, meet the Kota tribe. Sugar is bubbling over with pride, and confides her discovery of the idol with Ace. He is smelling Paloma's departure already, and she starts scrambling to keep herself alive, working on Corinne. Corinne appears to be the correct person to be talking to, as she has little love for Ace, going so far as to doubt his accent is genuine. She communicates her mistrust to her alliance. Charlie is doubtful at first, but seems to favor getting rid of the threat of Ace. And what's this from Corinne? She "hates so many people on this damn tribe," she says? So much for the hunky-dory Kota lifestyle...
At tribal, Sugar gets choked up thinking about her dad again. I don't actually doubt the veracity of her feelings, but people might start thinking she's angling for a pity vote. She needs to be careful. Paloma and Kelly take shots at Ace, Paloma jumping hard on him with both feet while Ace remains fairly coy. Is 
it me, or is Corinne right? Does Ace seem to lose his accent at times? If he is faking it, why? No doubt we'll find out one way or another soon enough.
No immunity idol is played, and Jeff reads the votes. Ace and Paloma rack up the votes, but Paloma comes out with the short end of the stick, and her torch is snuffed. It seems that the Corinne-Charlie-Marcus-Jackie alliance is content to suffer the threat of Ace for now.
So much for Kota's dominance! As we've seen before, a strong tribe takes a loss and starts to fracture along the lines of its alliances. The field is open a lot wider than it was at this time last week. Will next week bring a new period of dominance from Fang, or can Kota rally to take back the ground they've lost? See you in six days and 23 hours to find out!!
Stupid, stupid, stupid! Corinne made one of the biggest blunders possible for her game. She openly admitted Ace was a huge threat and didn't trust him and his supposedly fake accent, then squandered her best opportunity to dispose of him. Guaranteed Ace outlasts her now. She had the votes with her group and Paloma/Kelly. They didn't need Bob, the physics teacher who couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag. They also would have weakened Sugar (why does it feel creepy to write that name?) at the same time. We have seen time and time again that you take out your biggest threat when you have the chance. We have also seen when a tribe is beat down, the other gets too ****y and doesn't take a competition seriously. What happens? They loose then the momentum quickly changes like last night. All you need is a glimmer of hope and Kota gave Fang that.
Someone give Professor Bob a sandwich!! He looks like a Bataan Death March survivor and it's only day 9!!!
I agree it was stupid not to take down the over-confident Ace last night, but I think in the end he will not make it until the end because he is such a douch bag! I think it will come down to Corinne or Charlie, they are my two picks to win or at least make the final four. How funny was it that the gamer dude figured out the math problem over the physics professor-I felt bad for old bowtie.
I think they were right in getting rid of Paloma. They need Ace to win more challenges, so Fang can worry about sending THEIR members home. Also, this business of keeping the weak players is a bad choice. On "Survivor", we end up with useless idiots like Amber and Parvatti sneaking in for the win.
Cornelius, I disagree. The Survivor doctrine of "Outwit. Outplay. Outlast." is not about all the strong players reaching the end game. It is about individuals analyzing the current situation and making the best game move to further themselves in the game. For some people this is to be dominant, play good cop/bad cop, sneak around or fly under the radar. Whatever method they choose, there is always layers of choices. Unfortunately, a lot of these people get caught up in personal vendettas, specific agendas, creating a character they hope to market or are just flat out dumb as a rock.
Amber and Parvatti are examples of remaining flexible, making moves and decisions that bettered them and did it while staying off people radars. Whether you respect them or not, they used a strategy that worked for them and their physical, mental and social game. For the record, I am not a fan or either girl, but it doesn't p.o. me either.
Back to last night, I still stand by my above post that getting rid of Ace was definitely her best move. Ace set up Paloma to totally fail, they all recognized what he did and let him get away with it. Best to get rid of a conniver quickly and keep a known quantity like Paloma around. Ace may engage in douchbaggery but it doesn't mean that he won't hook up with someone from Fang and him, Sugar and unknown accomplice(s) wouldn't go on a run. Remember, playing Survivor is about setting up the long game while maneuvering through the short game.
DVR'S are the bizzomb (bomb) for those not in the know. You can cut out annoying segments/cut out annoying people-and rewind and laugh at Sarah Palin all over again. I love it.
I'm afraid I must go on a rant for a moment-so indulge me. Why did CBS go out and find the laziest most embar***ing black man they could in GC? Boys like this(cuz he's clearly not a man) make my race look bad. I'm angry-I'm black-I'll do as I please so deal with it-WE ARE ALL SO OVER IT GC!!!!REALLY!!!
You're not entitled to anything-you're not owed anything so play the game-why did you go on in the first place??-Believe me, someone in your family is cringing at every scene-GO AND GO SOOOOON!!! If I could have railed at him face to face last night I would have B**ch slapped the B**ch. Believe me.
Next week he labels hisself a PIMP!!REALLY???A man who forces women into prostitution??? That's just great. In the words of CHARLIE BROWN-AUUUUGHHHH!!!!
O.k. i'm done.Sorry.
As for the rest of the show-Crystal stepped up(you go girl)-I dislike Randy but he needs to step up to the leadership plate-sit back and watch the implosion only works so long- other than that a predictable show-winning team loses-losing team wins-idol found and gambled ya-da-ya-da. Oh-CBS-plz stop with the underwear shots-it's annoying and nasty-make those tramps wear the silly clothes they walked in on 24-7.
I guess I fast-forwarded through too much of the 'post immunity challenge alliance soap opera' discussion at Kota since I thought the initial idea was to use their larger numbers to vote out Sugar. Since she went to Exile, it would have been a good plan. Weaken Ace and possibly re-set the immunity idol if her tribemates thought for a sec that she had found it. Instead, they set their sights on Ace? Seems like a missed opportunity to swing the numbers in the loose Kota anti-Ace alliance. Oh well.
Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on where you stand) the Kota tribe is actually stronger without Paloma.
Lastly, you'd think Paloma would have watched enough Survivor to realize that being anti-social and openly disliking a fellow tribemate will put a big target on your back very quickly. There's a huge difference between flying under the radar while still being friendly, cooperative and social vs. sitting alone sulking and complaining about another person in your camp.
@Andrew:
I think the strategy Ace suggested prior to the reward challenge and his comments after was interesting and worth mentioning in the recap as he appears to be leading Kota. Something about resting their stronger players for the immunity challenge even if they lose the reward? In the history of Survivor, has anyone ever suggested doing this at a challenge so early in the game? I realize it has been done in the past seasons, but usually more like halfway through the game, right?
is it me, or is the FANG tribe more interesting to watch
I don't know for sure if it's a strategy that's been employed three episodes into the game before, but strategic withholding of contestants in challenges is certainly nothing new. I'd be surprised if it hadn't been suggested before.
Although you will note, for the first challenge, the decision was pretty much taken out of the tribes' hands when Kota was told to withold three women and Fang to withhold one man. I'd imagine that Kota was planning on sitting a couple of men so they could use them at the immunity challenge.
so relieved they got their BATHING suits
i was living in fear of underwear water challenges