Episode 11 MVP – I’m Rubber, You’re Glue
Survivor: Fiji, Episode 11 MVP – I’m Rubber, You’re Glue by Betsy Wasser -- 05/03/2007 Alex and Mookie tried to take control of the game, or to at least go out swinging. Everything they did backfired on them… and worked to the benefit of this week’s MVP. Alex and Mookie knew after last week’s brilliant play by the Syndicate (also known as the Earl-liance) that they were in serious trouble. So, they did what the truly screwed do on Survivor: They vowed to go down swinging. It seems to me that 99% of the time, a player who promises to go down swinging, or in a blaze of glory, or however he wants to put it, is really saying, “I am going to be as big of a jerk as possible until I get voted out.” We saw it last season when Adam and Parvati basically blackmailed the Aitu-four into voting out Jonathan (not that they weren’t going to do it anyway). We even saw it again when Adam tried to break up the happy foursome and convince them to force Yul to play the immunity idol. And remember in the Pearl Islands when Sandra was mad about a vote and tried to sabotage the camp (only to wind up there until the end)? Mookie and Alex managed to be just as obnoxious, though they thought they were making those moves in the name of strategy. But instead, all of their attempts winded up backfiring on them. Mookie reasoned that Yau-Man was the player most likely to have the hidden immunity idol. He and Alex knew that the clues to the idol were so clear that you’d have to be at Lisi levels of incompetence to not find it. Earl and Yau-Man were the players who’d been to Exile Island, and Mookie pointed out that Yau-Man spends the most time at camp. Therefore, he probably had it. He and Alex proceeded to root through Yau-Man’s stuff, even thinking to check the pockets of the pants that Yau-Man always wears to tribal council. They found the idol and triumphantly went into the woods to talk about their next move. I mentioned Survivor: Pearl Islands winner Sandra a few paragraphs ago. Say what you will about Sandra’s strategy, but one thing she excelled at was being sneaky. Sandra was able to learn other players’ strategy by following them and eavesdropping. It was a brilliant move on her part, and one I would think other players would be able to duplicate. After all, if you’ve watched the show since then, you should know to always look around very carefully to make sure you’re not being watched. Granted, I might be giving players too much credit by assuming they’ve watched the show before, but hey – it’s for a million bucks. They ought to watch some TV. Anyway, Mookie and Alex didn’t bother to make sure they were alone. They concocted a plan to out Yau-Man and his hidden idol at tribal council, then realized that Stacy and Cassandra were within earshot of them. The two of them did some quick scrambling and decided to confront Yau-Man about the idol. Tell the rest of the tribe you have it, they told him, or we will. I really don’t know what the two of them thought they’d accomplish with either of these plans. If they had made Yau-Man admit at tribal council that he had the idol, well then what? I don’t think that news would have been incendiary enough to make any of the Earliance change their votes at the last minute. Either Mookie or Alex still would’ve gone. Perhaps they were hoping that this news would cause some kind of dust-up that would save whichever of them didn’t get voted out. I don’t think that was a foregone conclusion at all. It was a long shot at best. And what of their plan to force Yau-Man to tell the rest of the tribe that he had the idol? Yau-Man shrugged that off, and rightly so. He immediately went and told the tribe that he had the idol, but because of the way he handled it, he came out smelling like a rose. Alex and Mookie were hoping that everyone would think that Yau-Man was dishonest or at least sneaky for hiding the idol from them. But Yau-Man told the rest of the Earliance that Alex and Mookie had threatened him. So who looked sneaky and dishonest? Not Yau-Man, but rather Alex and Mookie! Cassandra and Stacy, in particular, were horrified that Alex and Mookie had gone through Yau-Man’s things. Their reaction was amusing to me on several levels. First, Yau-Man himself tried his best to look through Sylvia’s things for the hidden idol, and showed even more sneakiness by burying a fake idol. Second, Alex and Mookie thought that the two women had heard everything, which they hadn’t. And finally, Cassandra and Stacy were so shocked that Alex and Mookie violated Yau-Man’s trust that it never occurred to them to be upset that he had the idol in the first place. There is a saying that is popular in playgrounds everywhere: I’m rubber, you’re glue. Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. That is pretty well how things turned out for Yau-Man this week. Alex and Mookie hoped to make him look treacherous. They hoped to make him look untrustworthy. But because of the way Yau-Man handled the situation, the two of them were the ones who looked treacherous and untrustworthy. In part, the response that Yau-Man got was due to the good will he’s built up in all of his time on the island. He has been hard working, great in challenges, respectful, and an all-around great guy. Because of that, it was unlikely that the other people in his alliance would suddenly find him, as Jeff Probst would say, “snake-ratty.” The other reason that Yau-Man got the response that he did was the very smart way he chose to present this information to the rest of the Earliance. He could have said, “Hey, I just wanted to share with you all that I have the immunity idol,” but instead, he led by telling everyone that Mookie and Alex were trying to blackmail him. That bit of semantics went a long way in making it clear that Yau-Man wasn’t the villain, but that Mookie and Alex were. Yau-Man took things a step further in tribal council when he said that this new development doesn’t change his strategy in the short term. He came across as very confident in his alliance. In turn, the other members of the Earliance will hopefully feel the same confidence in Yau-Man. I’m a little disturbed at the latest CBS promos suggesting that fan favorite Yau-Man might be in trouble around camp. I can only hope that they are just trying to scare us, because right now, Yau-Man is playing incredibly well. So well, of course, that he is this week’s Most Valuable Player.
Survivor: Fiji, Episode 11 MVP – I’m Rubber, You’re Glue by Betsy Wasser -- 05/03/2007 Alex and Mookie tried to take control of the game, or to at least go out swinging. Everything they did backfired on them… and worked to the benefit of this week’s MVP. Alex and Mookie knew after last week’s brilliant play by the Syndicate (also known as the Earl-liance) that they were in serious trouble. So, they did what the truly screwed do on Survivor: They vowed to go down swinging. It seems to me that 99% of the time, a player who promises to go down swinging, or in a blaze of glory, or however he wants to put it, is really saying, “I am going to be as big of a jerk as possible until I get voted out.” We saw it last season when Adam and Parvati basically blackmailed the Aitu-four into voting out Jonathan (not that they weren’t going to do it anyway). We even saw it again when Adam tried to break up the happy foursome and convince them to force Yul to play the immunity idol. And remember in the Pearl Islands when Sandra was mad about a vote and tried to sabotage the camp (only to wind up there until the end)? Mookie and Alex managed to be just as obnoxious, though they thought they were making those moves in the name of strategy. But instead, all of their attempts winded up backfiring on them. Mookie reasoned that Yau-Man was the player most likely to have the hidden immunity idol. He and Alex knew that the clues to the idol were so clear that you’d have to be at Lisi levels of incompetence to not find it. Earl and Yau-Man were the players who’d been to Exile Island, and Mookie pointed out that Yau-Man spends the most time at camp. Therefore, he probably had it. He and Alex proceeded to root through Yau-Man’s stuff, even thinking to check the pockets of the pants that Yau-Man always wears to tribal council. They found the idol and triumphantly went into the woods to talk about their next move. I mentioned Survivor: Pearl Islands winner Sandra a few paragraphs ago. Say what you will about Sandra’s strategy, but one thing she excelled at was being sneaky. Sandra was able to learn other players’ strategy by following them and eavesdropping. It was a brilliant move on her part, and one I would think other players would be able to duplicate. After all, if you’ve watched the show since then, you should know to always look around very carefully to make sure you’re not being watched. Granted, I might be giving players too much credit by assuming they’ve watched the show before, but hey – it’s for a million bucks. They ought to watch some TV. Anyway, Mookie and Alex didn’t bother to make sure they were alone. They concocted a plan to out Yau-Man and his hidden idol at tribal council, then realized that Stacy and Cassandra were within earshot of them. The two of them did some quick scrambling and decided to confront Yau-Man about the idol. Tell the rest of the tribe you have it, they told him, or we will. I really don’t know what the two of them thought they’d accomplish with either of these plans. If they had made Yau-Man admit at tribal council that he had the idol, well then what? I don’t think that news would have been incendiary enough to make any of the Earliance change their votes at the last minute. Either Mookie or Alex still would’ve gone. Perhaps they were hoping that this news would cause some kind of dust-up that would save whichever of them didn’t get voted out. I don’t think that was a foregone conclusion at all. It was a long shot at best. And what of their plan to force Yau-Man to tell the rest of the tribe that he had the idol? Yau-Man shrugged that off, and rightly so. He immediately went and told the tribe that he had the idol, but because of the way he handled it, he came out smelling like a rose. Alex and Mookie were hoping that everyone would think that Yau-Man was dishonest or at least sneaky for hiding the idol from them. But Yau-Man told the rest of the Earliance that Alex and Mookie had threatened him. So who looked sneaky and dishonest? Not Yau-Man, but rather Alex and Mookie! Cassandra and Stacy, in particular, were horrified that Alex and Mookie had gone through Yau-Man’s things. Their reaction was amusing to me on several levels. First, Yau-Man himself tried his best to look through Sylvia’s things for the hidden idol, and showed even more sneakiness by burying a fake idol. Second, Alex and Mookie thought that the two women had heard everything, which they hadn’t. And finally, Cassandra and Stacy were so shocked that Alex and Mookie violated Yau-Man’s trust that it never occurred to them to be upset that he had the idol in the first place. There is a saying that is popular in playgrounds everywhere: I’m rubber, you’re glue. Everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. That is pretty well how things turned out for Yau-Man this week. Alex and Mookie hoped to make him look treacherous. They hoped to make him look untrustworthy. But because of the way Yau-Man handled the situation, the two of them were the ones who looked treacherous and untrustworthy. In part, the response that Yau-Man got was due to the good will he’s built up in all of his time on the island. He has been hard working, great in challenges, respectful, and an all-around great guy. Because of that, it was unlikely that the other people in his alliance would suddenly find him, as Jeff Probst would say, “snake-ratty.” The other reason that Yau-Man got the response that he did was the very smart way he chose to present this information to the rest of the Earliance. He could have said, “Hey, I just wanted to share with you all that I have the immunity idol,” but instead, he led by telling everyone that Mookie and Alex were trying to blackmail him. That bit of semantics went a long way in making it clear that Yau-Man wasn’t the villain, but that Mookie and Alex were. Yau-Man took things a step further in tribal council when he said that this new development doesn’t change his strategy in the short term. He came across as very confident in his alliance. In turn, the other members of the Earliance will hopefully feel the same confidence in Yau-Man. I’m a little disturbed at the latest CBS promos suggesting that fan favorite Yau-Man might be in trouble around camp. I can only hope that they are just trying to scare us, because right now, Yau-Man is playing incredibly well. So well, of course, that he is this week’s Most Valuable Player.