A Dimm View of Life

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Location: Illinois, United States

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Survivor: Cook Islands Wk 8 & 9

Could I be any farther behind regarding Survivor? I suppose I could.

Thanksgiving and other commitments have slowed me, yet, thanks to 21st century technology, I am getting back to business.

When we last saw the group, there were twelve people left from the original twenty. “Flicka” had departed and was the first Caucasian to be booted from the party.

After watching two episodes the other night (and I’m still one behind), three more have been ousted. It is interesting how this season has played.

After seven episodes, if anyone still cares about the race theme introduced at the start of the season, there were four Caucasian’s remaining. There were also four Asians, three African-Americans and only one Latino. The two tribes were evenly matched with six team members apiece.

Jeff threw a new concept into the mix during episode eight. Before the reward challenge, he gave team members ten seconds to decide if they wanted to switch teams. Candice, who wanted to be on the same team as her beloved Adam, switched with two seconds left. Jonathon, who wanted to stay with his beloved Candice, switched right after.

Now we have one tribe with eight members, including four Caucasian’s and another tribe with four.

I won’t bore you with a wild description of the events that were played. Simply put, the team with four members easily whupped the team with eight/seven in four straight events. No real test.

The tide was turning in episode eight. Who was going to be voted off, Candice, Jonathon or Brad? Why Candice or Jonathon? Because they defected from their tribe. Why Brad? Because he wasn’t working as a team member. He “appeared” to be working alone.

Adam, who is an unspoken leader, said “Jonathon or Brad”, keeping his beloved Candice out of harm’s way. Nate, another leader on the tribe, made the mistake of saying he didn’t care which, as long as they were the next two.

Nate was not thinking. If Brad goes, there are four Caucasians and three minorities. Yet, that’s what happened. Brad was sent home because he preferred puzzles to swimming.

In episode nine, when tribe Raro was crumbling in the challenges, it was decided that two would be kicked out at one tribal council. Rebecca was an easy choice. She was weak during the challenges and wasn’t working around camp. Even Nate agreed that Rebecca should go.

The team was surprised by Jeff’s announcement that another tribe member would be voted out. They were expecting a merge. No such luck.

Again, the choice was easy. The Caucasians were not going to vote out one of their own. Nate was strong. Jenny was a girl. Jenny went home, four votes to two.

Now, the Raro tribe has four Caucasians and one African-American. The Aitu tribe has two Asians, one African-American and one Latino.

With no merge in sight, Aitu needs to win the next three immunity challenges to avoid a sweep by the Caucasians. Three are necessary because if Raro loses the next one, Nate will likely go home. Then two more losses will pit two Caucasians against two Asians (and a Latino and an African-American).

After the switch up after week two, we wanted to believe this wasn’t about race anymore. Is that still the case? I’m looking forward to the reunion special. There may be some interesting questions about how the game was played.

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Thursday, November 09, 2006

Survivor: Cook Islands Wk 7

After a week where we "reviewed" what had happened over the previous fifteen or so days, Survivor was back in action last Thursday. It took me awhile to take a look, but we're back at it.

Again, we were treated to the castaways denying that there was any "racial" tensions. They insist that it is personality versus personality. I am beginning to believe them.

Early on I felt the Asian-Americans had a chance to waltz through to the final five. During week six, Cao Boi was sent packing blowing that theory. The caucasions were still in tact though. Now, they turned on one of their own.

Jessica, aka Flicka, aka Roller Girl, who was the least threatening person in the Cook Islands, was sent home because she was "annoying". Brad may have gone home for his lack of participation in the reward challenge, except that his tribe won the immunity challenge.

The situation with Brad was the only really interesting thing about the episode. Brad is a buff Asian-American who decided to sit out of the "work" part of the reward challenge in favor of Rebecca who only swam once and looked like she nearly died trying.

Brad's thinking was that he was smart and was needed to help solve the puzzle once the pieces were gathered. Now his tribe is mad at him even though nobody stood up and told him "no, we need you to swim!". Rebecca, who has proven worthless, will be kept in favor of Brad. Go figure.

So what we are learning is that you a) can't be lazy; b) can't be annoying; c) can't speak up with an idea that may go against the norm; but d) can be unable to perform when necessary (just don't be lazy about it).

Next week it appears that either a merge is in order or a mix-up of the tribes is coming. We'll know tonight!

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