Survivor: Cook Island Episode 3 Thoughts

So the grand "social experiment" is over.

When it was announced that the tribes were to be segregated by race, there was a huge outcry. But now that it's done, what was actually accomplished?

Very little, to be honest. There were no grand social revelations that came from any of the tribes. There was no racial tension between the tribes. By Survivor standards, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Alliances were formed in each tribe. Some members of each tribe annoyed the other members of said tribe. When the tribes were "integrated" (to borrow Jeff Probst's word), alliances were formed based on former tribal lines. If Mark Burnett wants to declare some sort of victory on this, it's that this edition of Survivor proved that people are not so different when put into a reality TV game environment. I don't know if that's what he was going for, but that's what he got.

As for the game, what might have been the most surprising event of the day was Flicka's choice first overall as the 4 tribes became 2. I didn't think she was the strongest member fo the available women from her tribe, let alone overall. But hey, it wasn't my choice. It's funny, because the tribes seem pretty equal overall, but one tribe got Yul, Jonathan, Becky and Ozzy, who are the main schemers on the show. And we got to see that scheming in full effect once the Red tribe (sorry, I can't remember the tribe names yet; so they will be referred to by their buff colours), got defeated in the immunity challenge.

Let's backtrack for a second and talk about the immunity challenge a bit more. This was lifted straight from Survivor: Palau, with the only twist being that you needed to knock somebody on the opposing team down instead of tagging them. This gave the losing team a chance to come back, which is what the Red tribe almost did. Yul's idea to stop and fight was a good one and almost won them the challenge. But he didn't keep Cao Boi away from the action, and that ended up costing them. And the Blue tribe's choice of Candice was genius, even if they didn't necessarily realize it. The Jonathan/Candice/Becky/Yul alliance was ready to take control, but exiling Candice threw them for a loop. Keeping alliances from getting a solid ground is an excellent strategy, and what looked like a dominant alliance took a shot at the knees before it could even begin to dominate.

But give credit to Jonathan and Yul. They were thrown a challenge, but figured out how to get their goal - work on the weak links of Flicka and Cao Boi to flip to their side. And work them they did. And even after Flicka was still not sure, Yul did such a good job with Cao Boi that Cao Boi was able to swing Flicka's vote. Not that it was needed; I'm ashamed to admit that I totally forgot about Yul telling Becky that he had discovered the hidden immunity idol and he was willing to pass it along to Becky to save her. I'd imagine that Becky was carryin the idol in case Cao Boi and/or Flicka had a change of heart. (I am a little upset that we didn't get to see the first use of the hidden idol on Exile Island.) It's too bad for Cecilia, but it was probably the right choice.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Parvati's flirting with Nate. I have some advice for her - please refer to last season and what happened to Misty when she decided to flirt with the boys. She was not long for this game. (And since we're mentioning Misty, Parvati reminds me of her). Hopefully for her, she does not meet the same fate, but being so blatant about her flirting can only be a bad thing. And giggling and mumbling incoherently while trying to make some sort of analogy about a spider setting a trap or something just makes the analogy weak.

(And for me, I hope she stays around as well. Unlike Mr. Dalton Ross, I'm willing to be decisive and state that Parvati is my crush of the show.)

And while on the topic of crushes, the Billy/Candice "love affair" was completely crushed once and for all. I still have to watch the second episode of Survivor Live (tomorrow, I promise!), but I hope that Billy realized the mistake he made (or if he didn't, then he at least was not watching this episode). I mean, how can you made that big of an error in understanding?

(I think this is the "strange love affair" that Jeff Probst was referring to in his pre-show interviews. I hope not but it defintely fits.)

Who goes next week? I don't know. I think it's too early for Parvati to go, but at the same time I think it's somebody from the Blue tribe. And I also figure it's going to be a guy based on the preview for this week. So let's go with Nate, who is probably in the worst shape of all of the Blue tribe men. I think the women are going to send a message, but they aren't going toe be stupid about it.