The Survivor Research Project: Ep 8

The producers have actually allowed a tribe to dwindle down to 2 people and then to 1 single person! After seasons of undeserved bail-outs through tribe swaps and pseudo merges, this was an interesting and welcome development. I have to admit that it was almost painful to watch poor pathetic Ulong, down to 2 members and losing both RC and IC yet again. Then again, by stretching the team part of the game this far, the producers have, I hope, negated the probability of future players trying to do what the men's team did on Survivor Vanuatu - which was to vote out the strong players early and play the individual game from day 1. I think that part of Ulong's downfall was due to certain tribe members thinking too early about the individual game and not enough about how to work as a team. Whenever the challenges required teamwork, Ulong fell apart. I think it is telling that the 3 reward challenges won by Ulong were more reliant on individual abilities than on teamwork. So, while it is sad to see Ulong's downward slide, it is not exactly undeserved.

This episode also gave us a glimpse of politicking at Koror. Ian and Tom had a pre-split alliance involving Stephenie and Katie. I think the editors showed this to us to introduce the possibility that Stephenie will be safe for several votes after they merge (which should happen next week, if the jury still stands at 9 people). It will be interesting to see how they "protect" Stephenie, since they will not have the numbers to call the shots until they are down to 7 people. Will they throw challenges to allow Stephenie to win individual immunity? This would justify voting off others such as Caryn or Janu before Stephenie goes.

ST: Screen Time ; Im: Impression Left ; Lk: Likeability


Bobby John - Ulong
ST: 5 (one of the last 2 on doomed Ulong, there was really no choice but to give him lots of screen time)
Im: 5 (the episode title 'Neantherthal Man' was named after him! I think they showed a bit more of the gross side of BJ this week in preparation for his eventual departure. His performance at the gross-food reward challenge was also rather entertaining, in a disturbing way, when he stuffed five of the balut eggs into his mouth at one go. He also has the marvellous distinction of leaving the show without the "tribe having spoken".)
Lk: 3.5 (I think his exit was particularly gracious. His praise of Stephenie was unstinting and genuine and you could tell that he honestly appreciated the experience of playing Survivor. I think that he was probably too nice and honorable to have gotten much further, even if he had beaten Steph at the fire-making challenge to win the right to stay.)

Stephenie - Ulong
ST: 5 (tonnes of interview time, talking about life for 2 at Ulong, BJ's standards of hygiene and her trepidations about what was to come after the individual immunity challenge against BJ)
Im: 5 (she revealed her vulnerability this week, actually breaking down and crying when talking about how hard it was now that they were down to 2 people and still caught up in a long losing streak.)
Lk: 3 (I liked her a lot more this week, when her insistence on not being ready to leave finally came across as determination rather than selfish self-entitlement. I think it helped that she seemed resigned to losing if BJ could win the fire challenge, as he was admittedly better at that task around camp than she was. This week, her gutsiness and never-say-die attitude were shown in the best possible light.)

Caryn - Koror
ST: 0
Im: 0
Lk: 2

Coby - Koror
ST: 4 (bitched at great length about how dirty things were at Koror, and how useless the women except Caryn, are. Also given an unusual post IC confessional to talk about how he was picked on as a kid, and how proud he was to have contributed to Koror's success.)
Im: 4 (another great puzzle solving performance at IC. The shed tears during his confessional about his bullied past was also memorable)
Lk: 2.5 (I like that he has shown some real personality and is not an anonymous cipher, compared to someone like Janu and Jenn. I think the bitchiness could start to grate, but he appears to have reserved most of it for confessionals and have not shown it in front of the tribe)

Gregg - Koror
ST: 2 (participated in the IC for Koror)
Im: 1
Lk: 3.5

Ian - Koror
ST: 3 (talking strategy with Tom about their pre-split alliance with Stephenie, taking part in the gross food Reward Challenge)
Im: 3 (signs of fun times to come once things get to the individual part of the game. He seems gleeful about the prospect)
Lk: 4

Janu - Koror
ST: 1 (one short interview about wanting to gargle with the Scope forever)
Im: 1
Lk: 2.5

Jenn - Koror
ST: 3 (interviewing about Tom refusing to allow people to use the 55 gallons of water they won as part of the Reward for showering, preferring to preserve it for drinking. Seems to think that Tom could be endangered because of it.)
Im: 2 (the editing is doing her no favours. She's coming across as rather vapid. I don't think she necessarily is any more so than the other women, but the only substantive interviews she has given so far have been about showering and her relationship with Gregg.)
Lk: 2 (I think she could be substantially more agreeable than what the editing has shown, so the jury is still out)

Katie - Koror
ST: 1 (one short interview about Koror's amazing winning streak in IC)
Im: 1
Lk: 2 (she has a way of speaking that comes across rather smug, but the jury is still out on her too)

Tom - Koror
ST: 4 (taking part in the RC and looking like he really liked the balut, commandeering the fresh water and making no friends as a result)
Im: 4 (I think he has painted a big target on his back with his handling of the shower water situation. I actually thought he was quite diplomatic and didn't say out loud what he said during the confessionals - that the idea of using it for showering was crazy. But in the game, diplomacy or not, people will remember that he vetoed what they wanted to do)
Lk: 4

Next week - the long awaited merge? I think they will have to allow Stephenie to at least live with the Koror tribe, if she is part of the jury. Who knows, the way this season has gone, they may reduce the jury to 7 people. I thought it telling that Jeff didn't say "Congratulations, Stephenie, you are guaranteed a place on the jury". He didn't say anything like that to the Koror tribe either when they won the IC. Perhaps, in this "season of firsts", they are not quite done with the innovations yet.