Monday 29 August 2011

Survivor Tocantins episode 10

Last week…the war between Coach and Brendon escalated to its highest peak, and the Jalapoa three were recruited by both conflicting alliances. They decided to side with Coach, and Brendon, under a false sense of security, did not play his idol and was blindsided. Sierra, the only person who remained loyal to Brendon, is no in hot water.
This week…prepare for another blindside…
On day one, Sierra had aligned with Brendon and remained loyal to him thus far. Amidst the scrambling and treachery, she remained true to her ally, and now she is trapped in a tunnel with not much hope of escaping.  In normal senses, unwavering loyalty is desired…but this is not the case in Survivor. In the beginning, Sierra was on the outs of her Tribe and she has now found herself in the same situation. Will she be able to save herself?
Coach is meditating in the water and celebrates his victory with a battle cry. A bit too over-confidant?
Tyson has a talk with Sierra and tells her that she is next to go. He also, in simple terms, tells her that he thinks he is a better competitor than her. He comes across, like coach, as a tad bit over confidant. Wouldn’t it make great TV if Sierra somehow manages to beat Tyson, the challenge dominator, and orchestrate his blindside?
At the reward challenge, a team of Erinn, JT, Debbi and Tyson win the opportunity to mix with a local tribe e and enjoy a feast, and Stephen the Wizard walks a lonely road to Exile Island yet again. There is hope that a new clue and idol is hidden and Stephen can find it, but this is not the case. Debbi enjoys being around the children on the reward as it reminds her of the children she guides under her role as a Headmistress. But Debbi, as we see, is not the old fashioned, stuck up Principal. She is lively and participates in the martial arts dance and even does backflips. Can your Principal do that?
Sierra warns Debbi that later down the road she will regret the alliances she has put herself into. To make things plain, she tells Debbi that she will be betrayed by her alliance in the same way that Brendon was blindsided. Erinn proves to be much more strategic than we have seen thus far. She creates a façade of being on the opposition of Sierra, and confesses that Sierra is right. She wants to vote Sierra out next, as she views Sierra as a hurdle in her path to make a move and change the game around. As I pointed out last week, Erinn is positioning herself to be the swing vote and subsequently control the way the vote goes.
Sierra now talks with Coach. She seems to be feeding him with what she knows he wants to hear by saying that she has not lived to her potential. He tells her that he wants to give her a second chance, but he won’t. He gives his normal talk clichéd talk about the Samurai and how she must lay in her own bed. I kind of view his interaction with her a tough love. But he is also revealed to have a caring side when he talks about how he wants to give her chance to the camera.
We get to see a bit of a shock at the immunity challenge where the Survivors get to chose between a shot at immunity via Shuffle Board, or they could enjoy pizza. This is survivor and normal human needs aren’t exactly the same- what is more important – food or safety? Stephen just got back from Exile Island so it’s no surprise that he chooses pizza over the challenge. But Coach’s choice to eat pizza and not partake in a battle astounds me. Coach, the legendary samurai, the dragon slayer gave up immunity so easily. Wouldn’t it be entertaining if he gets blindsided as a result of forgoing this immunity challenge?
It’s a close game of Shuffle Board and it looks like Tyson is closest to the X and will win his third consecutive immunity. But here comes Sierra and with a swift slide of her puck, knocks Tyson out and is now in the lead. Revenge is certainly sweet for her, as she was able to knock off the arrogant person who thought he was better than her- talk about will power. Coach is in a slight panic now.  But Sierras victory dance is short lived as Headmistress Debbie knocks off Sierra and wins immunity. In my opinion, Debbi is a tough challenge contender as she does exceptionally well at immunity challenges and has so far been on both rewards.
Tyson hopes that Sierra will cry a lot. Yes there is a good chance of her crying- and it may just be tears of joy after a beautiful blindside.
Erinn knows that she cannot win the game by letting others make big moves. She recognizes Tyson as a threat in challenges. Now she contemplates voting off Tyson over Sierra. The Jalapoa Three also conspire to eliminate Tyson. It’s fascinating that the Jalapoa three, who could easily have been broken up by know, are still together and are in power, despite being on the bottom of the totem pole at the start of the merge. If you take a look at the long History of Survivor, particularly the first season- Borneo, we are accustomed to seeing two tribes at each others heads after the merge, and the tribe with numbers pick the other tribe members out one-by-one. This season is one of the best for the simple reason of the unpredictability and mixing of the two tribes.
Does Coach sense danger? He gives JT a talk about them being part of the “Warrior Alliance” and how stupid it would be if the Warriors turn on each other. JT reassures Coach they are strong, but plans on going against the alliance.
At Tribal, Tyson once again comes across as over confidant and makes it clear that his vote is going towards Sierra. He isn’t even concerned that he butting heads with Sierra could cost him in this game. Alarm bells should be ringing in Tysons head- but his problem- his ego.
Coach has professed on countless times that he wants to take the best to the end. He wants to battle people at the end in an honorable manner. But isn’t that conflicting with why he voted off Brendon?  He will “cut them off at the knees with no remorse and no regret”.  Coach wants to play this game with honor and truthfully, which is a bit risky, as less moralistic players can easily take him for a fool and walk over him.
So prepare of the best blindside- Sierra, Tyson, Sierra, Sierra, Tyson, Tyson (look of shock), Tyson and the ninth person voted out is TYSON…BLINDSIDED!!!!!
So who was more surprised- Tyson, Coach or Sierra? It must be great to blindside someone whose ego blinds them so much that they think they are invincible.( ***Spoiler Alert***Tyson will be blindsided again in the future…and the way he is blindsided is so much more awesome) .
Next weeks episode should be called “Irony”. After out casting Sierra, Coach and Debbi now find themselves at her mercy as they struggle to survive in this game. One thing is for sure…it’s very unlikely that Sierra will help them. Remember that she wanted Debbi she will regret her move one day? Well it looks like this day of reckoning came sooner than expected. It proves that age old saying that one should also be kind to others because “what goes around, comes around”. A little bit more support for Sierra…Tyson once said that she is in this game to give stupid people hope – well she certainly gives people hope that they can over come a bad first impression and that they can accomplish anything if they try- people will be stupid if they don’t learn from this.  As you could see, this episode focused a lot on Sierra. Are the editors painting an impression about her path to win this game?
Until next week…