Survivor: Cook Islands Episode 2 Thoughts

(I swear, I thought I'd get this done sooner.)

Back in my Survivor: Guatemala Finale Recap, I made a list of the Top 5 Stupidest Moves in Survivor History. Number 5 on the list was when Shook Jai threw a competition to eliminate a player they felt was not contributing to their tribe. At that point, Shook Jai was dominating. After that, the momentum swung to Chauy Gahn, and ironically enough, the last 5 players that season were all from Chauy Gahn.

Well, we now have a tie for #5 on the list.

This could actually be worse than the Thailand fiasco. Things that Aitu did not factor in:

- They made it very obvious what they were doing, to the point that Jeff Probst was openly mocking them.
- They could be combined into two tribes at any point; the lack of loyalty will have to be in the back of everybody else's mind
- If the tribes are not merged, then they have put themselves at a disadvantage against 2 other tribes. That is a huge risk to take - they are banking on not losing another challenge until the tribes are shifted in some way, and who knows when that will happen.

I can't emphasize the last point enough: NEVER PUT YOURSELF AT A DISADVANTAGE INTENTIONALLY! I don't care how much of a dead weight Billy is, you get rid of him when you legitimately lose a challenge, not when you decide you need to. The game is too unpredictable to think that you can just get rid of a player on your side and not feel any repurcussions.

Unfortunately, this is another example of inexperienced players making what they feel to be smart moves only to not know what the consequences were to previous players who did this as well.

Funny enough, another side effect of actively recruiting people who had not watched Survivor is that you don't get a good idea as to who is a really good player immediately. I mean, Yul looks like the supreme threat to win it all right now, but beyond that I only know that Ozzy doesn't know what he's doing.

This is also caused by the sheer number of players this season. 20 people is a huge number of people, and it makes it difficult to immediately tell your strong players. I mean, the producers can't concentrate only on the players that are going to be there at the end; they have to also concentrate the players who are set up to leave soon (so that you actually care about them leaving). Hopefully next season they will stay with the standard 16 competitors - it makes life so much easier.

One final note before the predictions: Watch Survivor Live! Dalton Ross and Jenna Morasca do a great job breaking down each episode while being entertaining. The interview with the player voted out is fantastic, and Probst's thoughts should be required viewing for all future players.

As for this week? Sorry Cao Boi, but your time is up. I don't think that Puka will throw the challenge, but Yul's stay on Exile Island might not be the best thing for their tribe.