Can You Emerge From the Merge Without Getting Purged?
Survivor: Fiji - Can You Emerge From the Merge Without Getting Purged? by Ken Kellam III -- 04/17/2007 Well, the remaining players have lasted long enough to make the merge, but one of them obviously wasn’t going to last much beyond that. Join along as Ken examines the merge, the latest Tribal Council twist, and the ever-changing tribal dynamics. Going into the latest episode, it was obvious the two tribes were going to merge. But the producers did it in such a way as to take the players on an emotional roller coaster, throwing in enough twists and turns to make you toss your tribal popcorn if you weren’t careful. It was almost like a series of good news/bad news jokes. The good news is, you’re merging. The bad news is, you’re all headed to Exile Island. The good news is, you’ll be headed to the old Moto beach. The bad news is, we stripped it clean so thoroughly it may as well be the old Ravu beach. That brings us to our first question: How amusing it was to see the reactions of everyone when they realized they were starting from scratch? Predictably, some, like Earl and Alex, were prepared, having already spent some time on a barren beach. Then there was Boo, one of three players left to have spent the entire time at the Moto beach, who expressed his displeasure at now being forced to see how the other half lives. Then there was Mookie, who had spent the entire game on Ravu beach, only to come to the realization his new home was just as threadbare as his old one. As he noted, he was the only one left in the game to have never seen the old Moto beach in all its glory. Fortunately, he’s also the first player to find the idol without actually going to Exile Island since that twist was added to the game. At first, Mookie played smartly, turning down Edgardo’s “offer” to “hold the idol” for him, and telling us he was being selfish with it, although I think what he describes as selfishness can be better described as good game play. As he told us previously, he’s letting Alex and Edgardo think it belongs to the three of them, but in his mind it’s his and his alone. But then he made a strategic blunder by telling Dreamz about it. I have just one question: Why? Hadn’t the three of them agreed that they wouldn’t tell Dreamz, due to his inability to keep quiet? Alex was visibly surprised, and understandably less than thrilled when Mookie revealed this info. What I’m wondering is, what was Mookie hoping to gain to doing this? Was it possibly because he didn’t really see Alex and Edgardo as his allies, and wanted some insurance? If so, he should’ve at least done it when neither of the two amigos was around. Then again, given Dreamz’s track record, there’s no way he could’ve kept quiet. Of course, it would’ve been fun to hear his confessional after this: “Mookie has the idol, and Edgardo and Alex know it, but they don’t know I know. But I do know, and I know that they know. I also know that they don’t know that I know, nor do they know that I know that they don’t know that I know.” In any case, whether or not Mookie really sees Alex and Edgardo as allies, or is just pretending to be aligned with them, telling Dreamz about the idol may come back to haunt him, judging by next week’s previews. But Mookie wasn’t the only one to make a questionable decision in the episode. That brings us to Tribal Council. The five players may not have had time to strategize, but thanks to a commercial break, I had time to predict who would vote for whom. Let’s go in alphabetical order, starting with Alex. We already know he wanted to bring Stacy into his fold; he was obviously aligned with Dreamz, and he knew Mookie had the immunity idol, which left Michelle. When Jeff Probst was plugging at him for reasons to vote off certain people, he played it as best he could. He had no way of knowing Probst would force his hand regarding the others as well, which, as Dreamz noted, made his vote pretty obvious. Then there’s Dreamz, who had previously expressed disgust that Alex and Edgardo wanted to take in Stacy, and even told Mookie that wasn’t happening, because eventually they would be the first two out after being down to five. He also remembered how Stacy treated him when they were in Moto together. I for sure thought his vote for Stacy was a slam-dunk. Instead, he may have changed the course of the game and made a serious strategic blunder by voting Michelle instead. After all he said to Mookie, why did he change? Since he knew where Alex stood, was he just going along? While it’s true that one of the rules of winning is not to let your emotions control you, in this case it would’ve been to Dreamz’s strategic benefit to actually go against that and vote Stacy. What if he had? He might have made Alex and Edgardo angry, but he would’ve ensured that Alex, Edgardo, and Stacy would not at some point outnumber him and Mookie. Instead, as Mookie noted in the upcoming previews, Dreamz screwed them both. It looks as though Dreamz may have made yet another error by going against his promise to keep quiet and blabbing to Cassandra about Mookie having an idol, but we won’t know for sure until next week, and maybe not even then. Okay, back to the vote. Michelle’s vote for Stacy wasn’t surprising, since she’d previously noted that Stacy needed to be gone. As for Mookie, he knew he needed to get Stacy out before Alex and Edgardo could bring her into the fold, so his vote for her was to be expected as well. Stacy’s vote is one that surprised me, though. She never seemed to care for Dreamz, although he did give her a few reasons not to before the switch, so I was sure she’d be casting a vote his way. Instead, maybe she saw an opportunity once Alex inadvertently telegraphed his vote, and voted for Michelle. Or maybe Stacy just had an “it’s either her or me” feeling regarding Michelle. Regardless, she avoided a tiebreaker by voting Michelle instead of Dreamz. This all begs another question: If the other team of five had lost, who would’ve gone? Well, Yau-Man, Cassandra, and Earl were all aligned, and they knew Boo was on the chopping block, as did Edgardo. So my guess is, even without time to strategize, the other four would’ve voted unanimously to boot Boo. The irony is, he knew he was a goner and said the division into five teams saved him. No, what saved him was his team winning the challenge. I do have a question regarding Boo, though. Mookie said Boo stirs things up too much. What I’d like to know is, how would Mookie know? He hasn’t been on a tribe with Boo this entire game until now. Or is that just something he said to the others to convince them to target Boo? And if Boo does stir things up too much, why haven’t we seen footage of this? It brings back memories of the Outback season, when player after player seemed to dis Keith, and we never really saw why. But since Boo is still around, and will probably again be a target, maybe we’ll get more insight this week. Having said all that, I should state that I think targeting Boo is a smart move strategically for all the players, but not because he stirs things up. Rather, he’s clearly one of the strongest players left and no longer has an alliance. Finally, I’m going to do something I don’t think I’ve ever done this early. I’m going to predict a winner. Now, there are no spoilers involved here. Rather, this is how I see things playing out. Now that Stacy’s still in the game, she will indeed join up with Alex, Edgardo, and somehow, I see these three making it to the end of the game and becoming the final three. Then, in final Tribal Council, we’ll have a repeat of last season, where one person, in this case Stacy, gets nary a vote. Eventually, Alex will win over Edgardo 5-4. Now, if Boo wins immunity and Stacy ends up going instead, let’s just say I’ll never be happier to be wrong about something.
Survivor: Fiji - Can You Emerge From the Merge Without Getting Purged? by Ken Kellam III -- 04/17/2007 Well, the remaining players have lasted long enough to make the merge, but one of them obviously wasn’t going to last much beyond that. Join along as Ken examines the merge, the latest Tribal Council twist, and the ever-changing tribal dynamics. Going into the latest episode, it was obvious the two tribes were going to merge. But the producers did it in such a way as to take the players on an emotional roller coaster, throwing in enough twists and turns to make you toss your tribal popcorn if you weren’t careful. It was almost like a series of good news/bad news jokes. The good news is, you’re merging. The bad news is, you’re all headed to Exile Island. The good news is, you’ll be headed to the old Moto beach. The bad news is, we stripped it clean so thoroughly it may as well be the old Ravu beach. That brings us to our first question: How amusing it was to see the reactions of everyone when they realized they were starting from scratch? Predictably, some, like Earl and Alex, were prepared, having already spent some time on a barren beach. Then there was Boo, one of three players left to have spent the entire time at the Moto beach, who expressed his displeasure at now being forced to see how the other half lives. Then there was Mookie, who had spent the entire game on Ravu beach, only to come to the realization his new home was just as threadbare as his old one. As he noted, he was the only one left in the game to have never seen the old Moto beach in all its glory. Fortunately, he’s also the first player to find the idol without actually going to Exile Island since that twist was added to the game. At first, Mookie played smartly, turning down Edgardo’s “offer” to “hold the idol” for him, and telling us he was being selfish with it, although I think what he describes as selfishness can be better described as good game play. As he told us previously, he’s letting Alex and Edgardo think it belongs to the three of them, but in his mind it’s his and his alone. But then he made a strategic blunder by telling Dreamz about it. I have just one question: Why? Hadn’t the three of them agreed that they wouldn’t tell Dreamz, due to his inability to keep quiet? Alex was visibly surprised, and understandably less than thrilled when Mookie revealed this info. What I’m wondering is, what was Mookie hoping to gain to doing this? Was it possibly because he didn’t really see Alex and Edgardo as his allies, and wanted some insurance? If so, he should’ve at least done it when neither of the two amigos was around. Then again, given Dreamz’s track record, there’s no way he could’ve kept quiet. Of course, it would’ve been fun to hear his confessional after this: “Mookie has the idol, and Edgardo and Alex know it, but they don’t know I know. But I do know, and I know that they know. I also know that they don’t know that I know, nor do they know that I know that they don’t know that I know.” In any case, whether or not Mookie really sees Alex and Edgardo as allies, or is just pretending to be aligned with them, telling Dreamz about the idol may come back to haunt him, judging by next week’s previews. But Mookie wasn’t the only one to make a questionable decision in the episode. That brings us to Tribal Council. The five players may not have had time to strategize, but thanks to a commercial break, I had time to predict who would vote for whom. Let’s go in alphabetical order, starting with Alex. We already know he wanted to bring Stacy into his fold; he was obviously aligned with Dreamz, and he knew Mookie had the immunity idol, which left Michelle. When Jeff Probst was plugging at him for reasons to vote off certain people, he played it as best he could. He had no way of knowing Probst would force his hand regarding the others as well, which, as Dreamz noted, made his vote pretty obvious. Then there’s Dreamz, who had previously expressed disgust that Alex and Edgardo wanted to take in Stacy, and even told Mookie that wasn’t happening, because eventually they would be the first two out after being down to five. He also remembered how Stacy treated him when they were in Moto together. I for sure thought his vote for Stacy was a slam-dunk. Instead, he may have changed the course of the game and made a serious strategic blunder by voting Michelle instead. After all he said to Mookie, why did he change? Since he knew where Alex stood, was he just going along? While it’s true that one of the rules of winning is not to let your emotions control you, in this case it would’ve been to Dreamz’s strategic benefit to actually go against that and vote Stacy. What if he had? He might have made Alex and Edgardo angry, but he would’ve ensured that Alex, Edgardo, and Stacy would not at some point outnumber him and Mookie. Instead, as Mookie noted in the upcoming previews, Dreamz screwed them both. It looks as though Dreamz may have made yet another error by going against his promise to keep quiet and blabbing to Cassandra about Mookie having an idol, but we won’t know for sure until next week, and maybe not even then. Okay, back to the vote. Michelle’s vote for Stacy wasn’t surprising, since she’d previously noted that Stacy needed to be gone. As for Mookie, he knew he needed to get Stacy out before Alex and Edgardo could bring her into the fold, so his vote for her was to be expected as well. Stacy’s vote is one that surprised me, though. She never seemed to care for Dreamz, although he did give her a few reasons not to before the switch, so I was sure she’d be casting a vote his way. Instead, maybe she saw an opportunity once Alex inadvertently telegraphed his vote, and voted for Michelle. Or maybe Stacy just had an “it’s either her or me” feeling regarding Michelle. Regardless, she avoided a tiebreaker by voting Michelle instead of Dreamz. This all begs another question: If the other team of five had lost, who would’ve gone? Well, Yau-Man, Cassandra, and Earl were all aligned, and they knew Boo was on the chopping block, as did Edgardo. So my guess is, even without time to strategize, the other four would’ve voted unanimously to boot Boo. The irony is, he knew he was a goner and said the division into five teams saved him. No, what saved him was his team winning the challenge. I do have a question regarding Boo, though. Mookie said Boo stirs things up too much. What I’d like to know is, how would Mookie know? He hasn’t been on a tribe with Boo this entire game until now. Or is that just something he said to the others to convince them to target Boo? And if Boo does stir things up too much, why haven’t we seen footage of this? It brings back memories of the Outback season, when player after player seemed to dis Keith, and we never really saw why. But since Boo is still around, and will probably again be a target, maybe we’ll get more insight this week. Having said all that, I should state that I think targeting Boo is a smart move strategically for all the players, but not because he stirs things up. Rather, he’s clearly one of the strongest players left and no longer has an alliance. Finally, I’m going to do something I don’t think I’ve ever done this early. I’m going to predict a winner. Now, there are no spoilers involved here. Rather, this is how I see things playing out. Now that Stacy’s still in the game, she will indeed join up with Alex, Edgardo, and somehow, I see these three making it to the end of the game and becoming the final three. Then, in final Tribal Council, we’ll have a repeat of last season, where one person, in this case Stacy, gets nary a vote. Eventually, Alex will win over Edgardo 5-4. Now, if Boo wins immunity and Stacy ends up going instead, let’s just say I’ll never be happier to be wrong about something.