Grid Effect

Another Thursday, another somewhat bland episode of Survivor. The team that loses the Immunity Challenge votes off the most obvious choice and nothing else really changes. From my perspective, the reward challenge was the most amazing portion of this episode to me. It was definitely telling as to why Raro tend to lose every challenge.

Essentially, because Ozzy is the closest thing this franchise has had to an Olympic swimmer, and 90% of this challenge is nautical based, they lose. Before the challenge gets underway, however, they have to divide their team into puzzle solvers and swimmers. Brad, the gay Asian guy who has managed to stay under the radar for the past two months, decides he will be on the puzzle. No one objects.

When the challenge starts, Ozzy and Rebecca are the first to swim out to there flags. Rebecca comes within an inch of her life trying to accomplish this, gets lapped by Yul and doesn’t even bring a flag back. Despite her effort, the tribe gets destroyed. In fact the team is so decimated in the swimming portion, they do not even reach the second half of the challenge. So I assumed that the initial reaction would be for everyone to blame Rebecca, which would have been unfortunate but justified. Instead, they blame…. Brad?

The argument was he should have volunteered to swim because clearly he is a better swimmer. There is no evidence to back this up, but on physiques alone it is a safe assumption. Never the less, she was the one who underperformed in the challenge, she never spoke up and said the task may be too daunting for her. Nate, who sat this one out, even went so far as to call him a “nancy boy”. Can someone explain this logic to me? Is Brad supposed to read her mind and know her limits? Did she convert him? Is he dating her? He says he excels at puzzles. Whatever, its a world map, not exactly quantum physics, but if no one objects then what is he supposed to do? I am sure if they had suggested he swim instead of puzzle solve, he would have gladly done it.

Adam is on exile island after losing reward challenge. It storms. He cowers. As would I.

Ozzy, meanwhile, manages to catch a sleeping bird. Candace in about a thirty second incoherent tangent, talks a lot but says nothing. Let me sum it up for you, “Ozzy does things. Ozzy is Ozzy”… Yeah, clearly you do not have to be very articulate to be pre-med.

Anyhow, the fact they would even consider voting Ozzy off is incredulous. The entire tribe eats better than I do on a shithole island as a result of this guy. He tries to form an alliance with Candace and Flicka, “What do u guys plan on eating if you vote me off?” Usually these tactics are ineffective, but he is on the outside looking in with his tribe. And even though I still maintain he is a pompous dickhead, I hope he makes it too merge. Mainly because his tribe, in many ways, is less appealing.

At Immunity Challenge, for some unexplainable reason, Yul wears his glasses, despite it involving zip-lining into the ocean. Jeff was harsh on Parvati in both challenges, with the condescending “You have to keep moving” chants. It is Most likely unintentional, though ever since it surfaced he was seeing Julie Barry in the Vanautu season, in the back of my mind I always suspect he’s playing the “I tease because I like” card. Childish, but thats kind of what Survivor is. Aitu loses because Becky, Sundra and Flicka cannot solve a puzzle with an ample head start over Adam, Sundra and Jenny from Raro.

At the Aitu camp no one trusts Jonathan. Even with being firmly entrenched in the alliance, he seems more likely to be voted off than Ozzy. Jon even admits to be overly, openly cunning. I guess he could be a little more discrete, what do people expect when they sign up for this? Flicka annoys everyone with her incessant questioning about tribal council. Its pretty much a race for one of them too be voted out.

Yul is virtually untouchable and the only person who knows about the immunity idol is Becky, who is worthless in her own right, but is in good standing with Yul backing her. And he doesn’t seem to understand the mistrust everyone has for Jonathan, which leads me to believe everyone is looking for a reason to vote him off because they do not like him. More so than believing he is untrustworthy. Ozzy somehow eludes any possibility of going home. He reminds me of Omar from The Wire, no affiliation yet everyone is afraid of him.

Ozzy and Flicka propose a merge of sorts to Candace and Yul, which proves ineffectual. Flicka is voted out. Poor girl, she never had a chance and I doubt she ever realized it.