Grid Effect

Thirteen days in between episodes distances us from an already distant Survivor season. With that said, lets dive right into the recap.

Pre-credits scene, For the first time in a long time in the pre-credits, its daytime! Yau-Man, as well as the rest of us, are surprised he’s still there, but all of us are better for it as he’s actually likable. That’s surprising, they go straight to a Probst meet up before the credits. He asks two people to step up, one from each team, Edgardo and Earl are the two volunteers. Probst informs them that they are forming new tribes. Ironically enough, they both probably want off their current teams. Earl, because he has a slight touch of famine; Edgardo, because the two women in his alliance are shit heads.

They must choose someone from opposite tribes. And the most recent member selected picks the next player for his/her team Edgardo takes Mookie, Earl takes Boo, Mookie takes Alex, Boo takes Michelle, Alex takes Rocky, Michelle takes Cassandra, Rocky takes Dreamz, way to put differences aside for sheer brawn. Cassandra takes Yau-Man. Anthony goes to a new all-male tribe, Stacy to the mixed squad and Lisi is the only one not selected, she blabbers incoherently about not wanting to stay in the game or something? I am not really clear. Anyhow, Edgardo wins a fierce battle of scissor-paper-stone to reach into a bag and pull out one of the two buff colors. More importantly than deciding team colors, this determines who goes to which camp. He pulls out the wrong one, the all male team is going to the island of no sustenance, the mixed tribe is being put up at the resort camp.

In case you’re wondering the new teams shape up like this:

Ravu: Edgardo, Anthony, Dreamz, Rocky, Alex & Boo.

Moto: Earl, Mookie, Yau-Man, Stacy, Cassandra & Michelle

Lisi is at exile island and for whatever reason seems disinterested in the interpreting the clue. She is really giving the Survivor editing team an easy time here.

Yau-Man, Earl and Michelle are basking in the glory that is Moto’s camp. Earl interviews how him and Yau-Man have an upper hand on the rest of the tribe because of the knowledge of the idol.

The favored alliance

Back at Ravu, they seem to be in good spirits for the time being and enjoying a full blown “male empowerment” cheer. Its everything you’d expect it to be. Rocky says he enjoys “touching and making out with women, and having conversations with them”, but likes being with just the guys. Well, there was only one remaining woman on his old tribe, surely he could have waited a few days to vote her off then talk about how great it is to have conversations with her. Anthony interviews about his physical and social inadequacies with his team, he explains how unfortunate he is to end up in this predicament, and unfortunately he’s probably right.

Earl recognizes that Boo may feel a little threatened about the new situation, as there are three former Ravu members on the new Moto tribe, in addition with the way Boo and Stacy were treating Cassandra, she is surely switching sides. Boo said he could smell the million because he’s a jackass. There’s still thirteen people left in the game, we’re not even close to half over, his confidence had crossed over into full blown arrogance, welcome back Boo.

Speaking of Stacy, there are so few women and she is clearly losing the head-to-head battle with Michelle for reigning attractive female status. In terms of Survivor, she has been living in luxury compared to Michelle’s squalor, and yet her face is breaking out horribly. Doesn’t bode well when your personality is already so ugly.

Anthony’s paranoia is going to get him booted, he describes the situation as, “the big men go off while Cookie is still here at the campfire”. Alex, who was previously complaining about all the backstabbing at the old Moto, is already politicking himself. They decide on an alliance of four between Alex, Mookie, Dreamz and Edgardo. Mookie cracks a series of unnecessary jokes about how weak Anthony is: “Rocky called him out and he almost cried” are his exact words. That’s embarrassing. The new Ravu manage to catch a bevy of fish.

Immunity challenge is everyone connected to the ends of three poles tied together going through and obstacle course that consists of five narrow gates and a finish line, which favors smaller contestants. Its dreadful to watch. In fact, they kind of get locked up and its impossible to narrate what’s happening. I can tell you that it’s neck and neck annnnnddddd, Moto wins in a close one. Obviously Anthony is going home. Not only did the perceived dominant majority decide he’s next, but the fifth member of the tribe cannot stand him.

We come back from commercial and Anthony is sharpening a blade and mocking the situation. It could easily be interpreted the wrong way. I think the next ten minutes are simply going to be Anthony lamenting his position. Dreamz does concede that Anthony does work more around camp.

Seems like we might have a game now. Edgardo and Dreamz both seem to favor Anthony. Edgardo even goes so far as to say that Anthony is Rocky’s “bitch”, and that is not something he thinks highly of. Rocky is now noticeably threatened, comparing Anthony to a girl again in an attempt to question his manhood, also adding that he doesn’t have any social skills. Which isn’t necessarily true, very few people can get along with someone like Rocky, I would dare to call him and his hyper-aggression borderline antisocial. But I wasn’t a psych major so I really have no idea.

At TC, Edgardo discusses how the defunct Ravu camp was exaggerated, and points out that at Moto’s camp it doesn’t really embody the concept of Survivor. In the instance that there is lacking any element of survival. Rocky berates Anthony about his femininity, at the behest of Probst Anthony actually stands up for himself. Anthony then explains he avoided confrontation to keep his tribe together so they could maintain some sort of solidarity, and that is a perfectly logical explanation. Alex at least says to Probst he felt empathy for Anthony. This was something of a zero sum episode, though, because they are getting Lisi for next episode.

They vote, Rocky and Anthony vote for each other, the rest go as such:
Anthony
Anthony
Anthony
More or less predictable, and most likely the wrong decision. I get the feeling Mookie was the deciding vote because he has lived with Rocky and Anthony for the past seventeen days. Set aside a few days when they first arrived, cannot really attest to the character of anyone on the old Ravu tribe.

In his parting words, Anthony is pissed off. And rightfully so. It amazes me that considering all of these individuals are over the age of twenty-three, that they would let simply the loudest person dictate the terms, but that’s what took place.

Next week looks like more of the same. Back with more on South Park when I can get the free time at work this afternoon.