Survivor: Cook Islands Episode 7 Thoughts

Well, you got me again Survivor. I really thought that I was going to be wrong this week. Then you throw that immunity challenge at me, and Aitu does something stupid and I turn out to be right for a second week in a row.

The part that really hurts is that I had an excellent post all ready to go about how destructive the Blue tribe had become once they had lost all hope. Then, against all odds, they win the damn immunity challenge and we get Flicka's deathmarch.

So I'm left scrambling here, trying to determine what to write about. (How about what happened on the show?) Nah, too obvious. What's the overriding theme here? Being a strong swimmer is a good thing on Survivor? How about winning makes everything better? Nah, the overriding theme here is trust.

The one thing about Survivor is that you need to have trust in somebody. Because you won't make the final two if you do not trust somebody else to support you. And this is what did Flicka in. She did not trust her tribe to have her back, and made it known that she did not trust her tribe. Then, once it was known that Aitu would be going to Tribal Council, she pressed everybody to make a decision right at the time she was talking to them. They did, even though they did not verbalize that to her. She sealed her own fate.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have to look at Brad and Jonathan. Both have done enough to cause their tribe not to trust them. In Jonathan's case, I don't know if it could have been avoided. He could have plaed the game not as hard as he did, but I don't know if that gets him to as good ao a position as he is in right now. But Brad, well Brad is playing a poor game. I don't get what he is trying to accomplish. First he puts himself on the puzzle because he thinks that the Blue Tribe "has problems finishing strong". Which of course is proven when they don't even get to the puzzle stage because they struggle with the swimming. (Shockingly, Adam, Parvati and Rebecca struggled with the swimming stage. And Rebecca's attempt to swim let me come up with this, the joke of the week:

Jeff: Rebecca does not have a key!
Me: Nor does she have a top!

Hey, I laughed.)

(BTW, this challenge actually made the Nate kidnapping a strong move. It was also smart for them to sit Nate out as it lets them make somebody available to be sit for the immunity challenge. So well done Aitu. Even if it didn't work out for you.)

Getting back to Brad, he first messes up by not swimming during the reward challenge. Then he proceeds to provide half-hearted defenses, like the aforementioned "I'm good at puzzles" defense, and the "I messed up, my bad" defense. Now his tribe has doubts about him. If the previews are to be believed, Brad proceeds to tell his tribe that it's every man for themselves. Unless he's saved by the surprise twist (which looks like a "You have 10 seconds to decide if you want to switch tribes" twist), he is done for, and he's not even thinking about what he's saying now.

So there you go. My boot pick for next week is Brad. And I'll even throw in that this is where we gete to see the beginning of the end of the Blue tribe, as they begin their path to Pagong-dom.

(On a personal note, next week's update won't be posted until at least Friday. I will be out of town and I have no guarantees that I will be able to see the show next week at its regular time, let alone being able to post anything.)