Welcome to my first ever Survivor recap! I've been a top commenter on the CBS survivor board for years and finally decided to get off my ass and create this blog.
Survivor is finally back and is as exciting as ever! The season starts off with three returning players, two celebrities, and one of the hottest survivors of all time. They start off on a boat split into three tribes of five, and even though the women outnumber the men by three they are still shocked to see the three returnees. Returning this season are three former players who left the game early do to medical reasons. They include Russell Swan from Samoa, Jonathon Penner from Micronesia, and all the way back from Australia fan favorite Michael Skupin, who is undoubtedly the inspiration for this season's theme. Roxanne's face says it all when the three jump on board the ship. The new players are starting to get sick of competing against seasoned players. However, there's no redemption island this season, which I actually miss. I think if you have a season where the new players outnumber the returning players you should definitely include redemption island to give them a fair shot of going deep into the game.
I'm not sure what Russell is doing there. Unlike the others he didn't leave because of an injury. His body simply couldn't take the stress of the game. On Tuesday I saw an promo with Russell where he said "last time I went 100% and almost died. This time I'm gonna go 110%". That makes a lot of sense. So he's going to try to increase his chances of dying by 10%. At least they didn't bring James back again.
Adding even more star power are undercover celebrities Lisa "Blair Warner" Welchel and Jeff "baseball MVP" Kent, who both seem to think they are the only celebrities playing this season. Skupin is teamed up with Lisa and instantly recognizes her. Jonathon is teamed up with Kent but doesn't recognize him, which surprised me after Jonathon used his baseball analogy in fans vs favorites and compared the season to the Boston Red Sox taking on fans of the Red Sox. Because of this I would think Penner would be pretty familar with baseball players.
So, after the returnees are introduced, Probst tells everyone they have 60 seconds to grab as many supplies as they can before being shoved off the boat. Jonathon immediately advises his team to look for a machete. Upon hearing this, Russell decides to follow this same advice but tries to individualize himself by telling his tribe to grab "anything with a blade".
They are given a 10 second warning, then in an odd twist of fate Jeff Kent, possibly one of the strongest and most athletic Survivors ever, appears to injure his knee while jumping off the boat. Now, I'm not a big sports nut, but I grew up in Illinois a huge Cubs fan and remain one to this day. I also lived in Houston for 10 years, so naturally I hate Cubs divisional rivals the Houston Astros with a passion, but one of the few Astros that I developed a real fondness for was Jeff Kent. He has a terrific no nonsense attitude. So I was really excited to see him play Survivor and extremely disappointed to see him get injured in the first five minutes. I'm starting to think there might be a Survivor curse on guys named Jeff. The last Survivor named Jeff was also a big strong guy who got injured early in the season, which resulted an early exit. This is especially scary for me because I'd like to go on the show someday and my name happens to be Jeff.
For the first time ever it seems like none of the returning players have a snowball's chance in hell of making it to the final tribal council. Both Russell and Jonathon's tribe are dying to vote them out. Skupin is able to form an alliance but is unable to stop chopping up his body. I'm not very good a predicting winners but as of right now I've got my eye on Dawson. I'm pretty sure none of the returning players will win, and I don't think Lisa or Jeff have much of a chance. Also in 5 out of 6 previous seasons that had returning players, the winner turned out to be a woman. She's the only person who recognized Jeff Kent, is a fan of the show, seems to have a likable personality, and is pretty but not too pretty. Just for the record she estimated the Kent made $30 million throughout his career, but according to http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kentje01.shtml it's closer to $90.
Although he can't stop cutting himself, Michael seems to be in the best shape to go far into the game, but that's not saying much. He's made an alliance of four, which unfortunately doesn't include Lisa who he wants to keep around. I had a huge crush on Lisa when I was kid and was really sorry to hear that she put ALL her Facts of Life money into the stock market and lost it all. Never put all your eggs in one basket. While Lisa seems to be on the outs the alliance of four also seems to be completely ignoring the inevitable mash up, when the three tribes become two.
Over at Kalabaw Jonathon has decided to spend his time blatantly searching for the idol instead of forming bonds with his tribemates (these guys could really use some lessons from Boston Rob). Maybe that's because he IS anticipating the mash up. Meanwhile, Jeff Kent decides to immediately target Jonathon. A strategy that worked so well for Francesca, Kristina, Christine,and Stacey.
Out of all the returning players Russell's game plan is the most confusing. As soon as they get to camp, he proclaims he does not want to be the leader and wants to work as a team. Then in the very same breath he starts barking orders and doesn't stop until he feels his ass on the hot seat at the end of the episode. I don't think I've ever seen anybody come in as cocky as him. I do have to give him props for his record setting fire making accomplishment. With that advantage there's no way they can lose the first challenge. Right?
Within Russell's tribe you have oddball Zane employing an even crazier strategy. He makes a separate alliance with all three girls then goes up to the guys and informs them of this. Then there's Malcolm who I heard was going to be the worst villain since Russell Hantz. He definitely has a sneaky way about him but I haven't seen a level of evilness that comes anywhere near that of Russell. Unlike Russell (Hantz or Swan) he seems to have a brain in his head and a lot more charisma.
Well I'm pleasently surprised to see the challenge doesn't begin until after an hour has passed, which means this is a 90 minute premeire, which I always love. As I said before, I'm very confident Russell's team will win, until I see them putting a strong emphasis on Russell's pre challenge strategic orders. This immediately sends up a red flag that Russell's team will be heading to tribal this episode. So, I'm not at all surprised when they come in last. After the challenge Probst asks Russ what happened. Being the egomaniac that he is, Russell doesn't seem to be the least bit concerned and says there's ALWAYS a next time. Then Probst reminds him there will be next time for only five of them.
Back at camp Russell is completely oblivious to the fact that his entire tribe can't wait to vote him out, but then he gets a little help from Zane. Zane comes up with this insane plan to put the target on himself! The crazy thing is that it ALMOST works! Angie (who DEFINITELY will make my countdown of hottest survivors on my other blog) begs Zane to vote out Russell. So does Malcolm, but then Zane makes a critical error by telling the rest of the tribe that Russell has the idol, which he doesn't.
What follows is one of the most perplexing first tribal councils ever. Long story short, the entire tribe attacks Russell at tribal then proceeds to vote out Zane. I'm still puzzled on why the voting and dialogue went the way it did. I figured Russell was a goner and that everyone would do their best to make him feel safe but instead they do the exact opposite. I thought maybe they were going to split their votes to flush out the idol but I look at the clock and see there's no time for a revote. I don't know if they were afraid of Russell using the idol or if they just decided to keep Russell's muscle. I think it was a mistake, because now they've given Russell a few more days to actually find the idol. Not sure if he's bright enough to do so, but next week should be interesting. My guess is that Russell will lie low for the first five minutes of the episode and then his ego will have him barking orders again in no time.
Next on Survivor
Penner seems to come closer to finding the idol and although she's on the outs with her tribe Lisa appears to be safe next week because the previews made her look like she's in danger.
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