Grid Effect

The night kind of creeped up on us here and we damn near forgot about writing this. But, to tell you the truth, if this episode was even remotely memorable it might not have been a problem. We’re lacking the resources to do a play-by-play of the episode, so here it is in bullet form.

-That’s the end of the line for PG. We could fault Denise for not crossing party lines, but it’s not like last week. She still should have tried to coerce Amanda into voting with her and PG, as Amanda seemed pretty keen on doing after the reward backlash, and they certainly did open the topic up for conversation. But the problem is, it’s too Amanda’s detriment to align herself with PG, and that subtle zoom-in during TC seemed to indicate that she realized that. Right now she has to be considered the favorite, because Denise should get the boot eliminating her from final 3, no one’s going to vote for Courtney because she’s virtually worthless in this game and everyone on the jury will hold a grudge against Todd.

That leaves Amanda, whose been as pivotal as anyone remaining outside of Todd and no one really recognizes as a threat. Also, Amanda just won PG’s jury vote. Then again, they keep suggesting three tribal councils tonight, so it could go either way.

-While we understood PG’s frustration when Denise snubbed her yet again on reward, we couldn’t for the life of us discern why Amanda was taking it so personally. First, she went on the last reward; second, why was she any more deserving than Courtney or Todd. We prefer her to her two counterparts, but Amanda is completely delusional if she thought that trip to the Great Wall was owed to her. The average five year old exhibits less entitlement.

-The two challenges were nothing new. And that is speaking literally for IC. It was a stage challenge, and each stage of it was a mini-version of a challenge they’d already played. The person least at risk (Amanda) edged out PG, though it was fairly anti-climatic. During RC we actually drifted off momentarily, so we missed a healthy amount of them shooting arrows at varying segments containing their names on a grid.

-The aforementioned backlash mostly stemmed from Courtney and Todd “complaining” about the meal at reward. And while if you were one of the people snubbed from going, you certainly don’t weant to hear any lamenting about the trials and tribulations of having to cook your own meat, simultaneously however, Amanda and PG would have been just as bitter if they came back exhaulting the wonders of the meal. Admittedly, though, hearing Todd did eat the leftover food on the plane back would have been infuriating.

-On the bright side, this miserable alliance now has to turn on each other so it should be a quality finale tonight, even if ultimately an unsatisfying one. Looking at the final four, this is how we perceive each remaining contestant:

Courtney- Immature, ditzy, almost irredemably bad at any challenge that doesn’t involve her balancing her malnourished, undersized ass on a mobile surface.

Todd- Ego driven, though fairly unimpressive and got to the final four by virtue of good fortune than anything. For the most part, he seems decent enough but is often vile without any justification for being so. In short, he’s the worst “strategic” leader since we’ve been watching this show. If he’s voted out tonight, rest assured he’ll give a “they just wanted to get rid of the best player in the game” speech.

Denise- Can’t see the forest for the trees. A decent person, which is more than can be said for the lot of them. But she’s gone from hanging on one group to the other without ever capitalizing on the opportunities afforded to her. She’s been ineffective in challenges and a mild contributor around camp…essentially she’s an older, less hostile and judgemental version of Courtney.

Amanda- She’s made a couple notable strategic plays that have shaken up the game, but for the most part she just hasn’t fucked anything up while everything has fallen in her favor. She has been and is currently the second in command of the strongest alliance in the game. No one seems to hold too much contempt for her, but outside of PG, Todd and Erik, no one really seems to like her either. This is why she’s the favorite.

I could see a scenario in which Todd and Amanda conspire to vote out Amanda given her goo standing in the game (at least comparatively speaking), Todd being much tighter with Courtney aligns with her and offer Denise a spot in F3 that Courtney would go home. But as of now no one else is much of a challenge threat.

Enjoy the episode, we’ll be back in the morning with a recap of tonight’s finale.