- Stephanie and Jed could and perhaps should write a book on how to play Survivor as poorly as possible. I mean, they aren't B.B. Andersen tier, but.. they're probably second and third to B.B. Andersen. It is actually pretty hilarious to watch them make so many mistakes. "Food is more important than shelter!" -> "Why are they all going to get food? You don't need that many people!" "I'm not gonna work on the shelter even though I'm the strongest person and could probably help out a lot!" -> "They've made no progress on the shelter!" Most of this is Jed, but Stephanie is right there next to him. I have to appreciate them if only because they seem to be literally /the only thing/ happening on Sook Jai, but even besides that they're just funny on their own.
- Robb says that he can't let things irritate him too much because you have to have a good time on Survivor and not make enemies. Yeah, that'll last.
- Hey, Brian actually has half a soul! He compared himself to Tanya's older brother and said he was sending her home for her own self-interest. < 3 Brian, so far, doesn't seem like a terrible person? But I can't tell if he's just terrible enough that he's pretending not to be terrible. I don't know. So far he's actually a good guy, though, which is scary.
- Clay's role as the guy who basically sits there insulting everyone has begun. < 3 He had some entertaining commentary about Helen and Jan's inexplicable decision to not bring the map with them to go get water (?????????????) and he compared Helen to an encyclopedia, which is fun. He did an impression of her (something to the effect of "I AM GOING TO PICK UP THIS LEAF, AND WALK IT OVER HERE, AND PUT IT DOWN, AND IT IS VERY SERIOUS.") and it was pretty hilarious and accurate. I am now understanding the Clay love a bit more. Probably because my DVD is really good quality compared to my old download so I can actually understand what he's saying more than 33% of the time now.
- Ted is a low-key character but I get the sense that his role is the guy who makes everyone laugh? He sang a song about food while Brian played the guitar and read Tree Mail like a news anchor, and.. to be fair, I don't see much humor in either of those things, but everyone around him did, so good job Ted! If your tribe likes you, then I can like you too. < 3
- Ghandia voted for Helen because she thinks Helen doesn't deal with emotions or stress well. I find this interesting because in the next episode Ghandia karate chops a tree.
- Jan is such a shamelessly annoying human being. < 3 First of all, both she and Helen made the inexplicable decision to not bring the map with them -- WHY WOULD YOU NOT BRING THE MAP? Even if you're 100% sure you know where you're going, the map is /right there/ just grab it for the love of Christ, it's a sheet of parchment it will hardly weigh down your boat -- and then Jan proceeded to lay in the water and apparently take naps while Helen went and looked for the water source on about 500 different islands. Then when they got back, Jan said "Can the tribe not do any more adventures for a while?? They seem painful!" but... it wasn't the tribe, it was you an Helen; that wasn't an adventure, that was you not knowing where to go and inexplicably deciding to not bring the thing that tells you where to go. Jan is a ridiculous individual and I adore her for it. And she hasn't even started burying embryos or breaking banks yet!
Brief aside: Although 90% of the "Jan and Helen get lost" scene was pretty hilarious, there was one part that actually freaked me out. There was a shot of them in their boat having no idea where to go, and the current started getting bad and water splashed up on their boat and shit, and.. eek. As someone who cannot swim and has a very specific phobia of being lost in the ocean, that scene was actually legitimately terrifying. < / 3
- Helen was easily the star of this episode. First, all the stuff I said about the map -- why would you not bring it, etc -- equally applies to her because she also didn't bring it, so way to fuckin' go. But on top of that, the whole Helen's anniversary scene is one of the sweetest and most adorable scenes ever in Survivor. < 3 What I love about Helen is how whenever she is doing anything, she does it 110%. She can't just be annoyed at Jan's laziness; she has to be weighing out the pros and cons of murder-suicide. She can't just be serious about camp chores; she has to be SO HYPER SERIOUS that people make fun of her for it behind her back. She can't just find the taste of squid gross; she has to get the most squeamish face ever about it in a confessional to the point where it looks like she might cry. But it isn't just for negative emotions -- when Helen is happy, she is the HAPPIEST PERSON EVER and almost cries because of the anniversary party. < 3 Helen is either incapable of hiding her emotions or, I think, just doesn't really care to. You can read her like a book whenever she feels anything and she could not be any more over-the-top with every single feeling if she tried, and we need more people like that. < 3
Oh, that reminds me of another Jan Is Probably Insane moment: In the middle of Helen's anniversary party, an incredibly sweet, touching scene, they put the flower crown on Helen and it's so touching how even in a cutthroat game her tribe members did this for her.. and then Jan, off-screen, goes "CAN WE EAT THAT???" Way to capture the emotion of the moment, Jan. < 3
- Tanya is maybe a random favorite of mine, but I have no shame in the fact that I like her as a character far more than her minimal two-episode edit warrants. < 3 I really think that there was a lot of character potential there with a story arc about her being by far the youngest member who still managed to make real personal relationships with all of these people decades older than her, and had she not gotten Camacho'd, I wonder how that would have turned out. It would have been really interesting to see this 20-something girl go on to become one of the big players within a group of people whose average age was otherwise 41. There was a lot of potential there but unfortunately it was just not meant to be. And she also is such a nice person in general; her profession at the time was a social worker for sexually abused children, which is one of the most heroic and respectable jobs that I think anyone in the world can ever have -- maybe THE most heroic and respectable? point is it's awesome -- and she had an off-screen storyline about losing a family member and having to go home early after she was voted out. If you watch her Early Show interview on the DVD it confirms everything I thought about her: that she was such a genuinely happy, constantly smiling person who had no issue with her exit and formed a lot of real relationships that would have mattered in a big way had she not been sent out early. She really did not get much air time so you kind of have to read between the lines for her character, but I am more than willing to do so and I think that Tanya had the potential to be one of the most popular early characters. Love her despite her short stay and wish that she had gone further so I could love her even more. < 3
And she had a great audition tape, which is also available in the Early Show interview on the DVD.
This episode in general was really strong. While watching it I thought it was just okay, but now that I go back and think about it, it was full of little character moments.
I also think that the editors are doing a very good job of setting up the long-term storyline in a subtle way. Brian is getting a small edit but one that is definitely presenting him as a positive, amiable Chuay Gahn member -- the one who brings the guitar and gives people music, the nice older brother who votes out Tanya for her own well-being. But of course, as the premiere told us, he's still on a business trip, which I imagine will become more apparent as the season goes on. Clay is also shown in a positive way; there was a brief scene about how he brought golf balls as a luxury item that everyone enjoys.
In a broader sense, when we see Chuay Gahn, it's often stuff about how they get along: Helen's anniversary party, everyone playing music and watching the monkey, playing golf with Clay, only voting someone out because they /have/ to due to her illness, etc. When we see Sook Jai, it is invariably a scene of people fighting or Jed and Stephanie doing Jed and Stephanie things -- a scene of the tribe failing to function as a cohesive unit. Of course, there is the question of to what extent this is the edit and to what extent Chuay Gahn really /did/ succeed due to unity and Sook Jai really /did/ fail due to dissent; I think it's probably a little of both. I mean I can't imagine Jed and Stephanie NEVER had fun with everyone else, and I can't imagine Chuay Gahn never had their little moments of disagreement; these moments probably would be emphasized more if the outcome were the opposite. We also got a lot of stuff at Tribal about how once Chuay Gahn does win a challenge, it'll be a big one that sends Sook Jai to Tribal Council again and again, which is what happens; seven of the eight Sook Jais are voted out in a row as a result of throwing the challenge. So the edit does play some role in telling this storyline, which I appreciate a lot -- but at the same time, the harmony between Chuay Gahn and the conflict with Jed/Stephanie are real things that did affect the season, so it's not as if they're totally fictionalizing it.. there's just an emphasis on certain things that have more of an impact later on. Really liking this storytelling so far and the season is off to a good start.
But next episode is Grindgate, which.. eek. I don't think that that'll be particularly fun.
