Not a super exciting show last night, but a good one nonetheless. It was the family visit sponsored by Sprint. The sponsorship & product placement used to make me do the eye-roll, but I get it how it helps make the show what it is. And at any rate, I always love seeing these people's families. Makes them a little more like real people. Even crazy Phillip's sister seemed like such a lovely, normal woman. Which brings me to this:
Is Phillip Acting?
That's how they sold this episode to us in the previews: Is it all just an act? Well, they didn't really answer the question, but it's looking like yes. He's letting us know now that he IS for sure being the "villain" on purpose with the idea that it'll help someone like Rob decide to take him to the final two, where suddenly he's going to win the jury over with some sort of fantastic argument. OK..... Will it have, "You can't HANDLE the truth!" somewhere in it? I hope so. So... anyway... it's a valid strategy. Some people choose the "under the radar" strategy but I don't think the "being the villain" strategy has ever been pulled. People actually ARE villains sometimes (uh, Parvati.) or else they get booted before they get that far. Phil - being an undercover specialist - knows how Rob is playing the game. This would also explain CBS's use of a question mark behind the "Former Federal Agent" title.... And Phil told us that he has to throw in some crazy every now and then to remind everyone that that's his schtick. Now, it seems that Rob "has a feeling" about Phil and that the others might have figured him out to some extent too. But, is it a moot point if - acting or not acting - Phillip has actually pissed people off. Guys like Steve aren't likely to forgive being called a racist, even if it was all part of the act. Mind you, I don't know how enamoured the jury is with Rob either.
Mike wins the 4-way Duel, joins priesthood
Can we still call this a duel? At any rate, it was Mike vs. Matt vs. Steve vs. Ralph. Mike won, Matt & Ralph came in 2nd and 3rd, so get to stay in Redemption Island, while Steve-o had to go to the jury. Good thing too, 'cause that guy isn't doing too well out there. Feed Steve fast! Now because Mike won, he got to spend time with his mom OR forgo his visit to give a visit to his pals Matt and Ralph OR he could forgo his visit and give a visit to the Ometepe Six. Even my boyfriend Jeff was surprised when Mike chose to give the visit to the O-6, saying that the Lord would want him to give love to the most people or something like that. And, if it gets him some jury love in the meantime - should he make it that far - then bonus! Wow. Really? Now, I don't doubt that this is a tough choice and even our man Matty said he wouldn't have wanted to make that decision. But here's the thing:
1) Your chances of making it to the final two at this point are really, really, really slim. Even if somehow you can win over the Lord and defeat Matt... who is pretty much UNDEFEATED in like, 300 challenges... and you manage to re-enter the game... you're all of a sudden up against the Ometepe people, who have no allegiance to you and want your ass gone. They know you have lots of pals on the jury and why on earth would they take you to the final two? You'd have to win every challenge from here on out.
2) If you did make it the finals, maybe showing your pals some love would be an OK idea then. They are the ones who for sure are going to be voting for you.
3) Guys like Rob are for sure thankful that you let them see their families, but will it get you a vote? No. Probably not. Will it make them not vote you out? No.
Which is another really interesting part of the show to me and one that I think someone could write a really interesting sociological paper about... how a person's religion works for or against them on Survivor. It's not like you've got a bunch of people from the same church with the same beliefs on this show. You've got people of different religions - Phil's a Buddhist, Rob's a Catholic... but not everyone lets it dictate their game play. The whole idea of "Outwit, Outlast, Outplay" doesn't really jive with "Love thy neighbour" does it? And at what point does it become about free will and choosing to play a GAME. In games sometimes it's OK to be a bit of a jerk and it's OK to be selfish because the point of a GAME is to win. Survivor is a reality show, but is not real life. So yeah, Mike's a nice guy. He'll probably get points at his church and from his family and friends. Mike is a guy who in real life you'd like to be your neighbour or friend, but Mike will not likely win Survivor. Does a guy like Rob believe in God LESS because he chooses to play a different style of game where it's OK to play people? I think no. I would also like Rob as a neighbour or friend, but also he'd throw a better party. Discuss.
Back to the show.
We knew the O-6 would have to start voting each other out. Rob won immunity and just about killed himself doing it. Remember in All-stars when he just about had to leave the show due to heat exhaustion? Yeah, this was like that. The day was like, 200 degrees or something and the challenge was this enormous staircase puzzle where the contestants could only take one piece up at a time, so it was up, down, up, down.... I thought Rob wasn't going to get up at the end. But you have to say he's giving it his all, for sure. He's now wearing a shirt with a picture of Amber and his baby on it, which is super cute (I would think she didn't come as the family member because she's got a new baby....)
So it was voting for Andrea because she's a threat physically (she just about won the challenge!) and she still maybe loves/feels guilty about Matt OR Phillip because he's annoying and untrustworthy. In the end it was Andrea, who was totally blindsided, which boggles my mind. How, at this point, can you be so trusting that you don't think you'll be going home? The only person who should be relaxed is the one with immunity (and let's remember Rob has the immunity idol too....) Next week it looks like the girls might throw a wrench into Rob's plan & try to oust Phil... but our Rob is pretty clever.
Tribal Council was good. Jeff enjoyed seeing everyone so sure of themselves and then asking Phil to "Give us a nugget of wisdom from your grandfather." Hee. Sadly, the nugget was just to "keep the faith" or something relatively uninteresting. The cut-eye that Phil gave to Steve when he walked in was fun. And the music/editing of this show is awesome. The "surprise" music when Andrea's surprise face is shown... the "suspense" music.... so good. And seriously, did you see the tarantula that crawled into a sneaker? Are you like me, do you wonder if the cameraman puts it there or do they just sit and wait for it to happen? I believe there's a snake/spider wrangler on staff paid by Sprint. And I'm all for it.
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