Survivor

Best episode of the season?  Maybe.  Whenever there's a surprise at tribal council, there are claims of “great episode!” every which way, but last night's Survivor illustrated the greatest legitimate criticism of the series: the game places the stronger players at a huge disadvantage.  Unless you can single-handedly win every immunity challenge, a strong physical player is going to be targeted for elimination.  While I understand this complaint from former and non-fans, it's something that I've come to terms with over the years.  Even if it is a flaw in the Survivor game, it's one that has no solution.  A number of exceptional challenge players have won the million dollars, so it can happen.  The advantage of being physically gifted is off-set by the massive, blinking target on your back.  Ozzy should have realized this.

Ozzy Lusth, being a so-called “favorite,” was at a disadvantage from day one.  But, even so, I feel no sympathy for the “photographer.”  First, I like Ozzie.  But, he has a distinctly arrogant way about him.  I picked up on this during the Survivor reunion of his first season.  He is full of himself, perhaps unknowingly so.  You can tell that it rankles the people around him.  I am sure that this quasi-solipsism led to his downfall, if only because he probably never entertained the thought of playing the immunity idol during last night's episode.  The editing of Survivor makes it impossible to know exactly how everything went down, so I can only assume that Ozzy was the target since the merge happened.  For those who ended up voting off Ozzy, it was the perfect time to blindside him.  Even if he had caught wind of the campaign to get him out, Ozzy would have had to use his immunity idol, and since Jason was already a threat who the tribe wants out, it was a win-win situation for Natalie, Alexis, Cirie, and Erik.  Mostly, I think the episode showed that, no matter what Ozzy did, the tribe as a whole was not going to let him advance much further. 

From here, again, I really have no idea where this season will go.  Incredibly, the Fans may have the upper hand.  It would make sense for Erik, Jason, Natalie and Alexis to just pick off Parvati, James and Amanda.  Cirie, as always, finds herself as the swing vote.  Maybe Jason will be targeted next week, maybe it will be James.  Personally, I'm going to be rooting for James to win the next immunity challenge.  If that happens, the ladies of the tribe will have a lot to think about.  Will Parvati and Amanda be able to join forces with Natalie and Alexis and oust either Erik or Jason?  Or will the game revert to Fans vs. Favorites again?


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer 
(Image Courtesy of CBS)