“I didn’t come out to Fiji to be told what to do. I came out here to make big moves. And I have this feeling in my gut this is the right moment.” – Desiree Afuye,Survivor: Ghost Island
It’s day 11 on Lairo tribe, and Elaine is absolutely scandalized.
Aaron wants to vote out Dean, and Elaine can’t believe it. “If Aaron’s willing to cut the throat of his friend, then what’s he going to do to me?” she gasps.
Elaine doesn’t want to take such a huge swing. So Missy proposes another option. If the goal is to split up the Chelsea/Dean power couple, what about Chelsea?
Elaine’s monocle pops right off. “Missy is something else,” she huffs. “Literally within ten minutes, she flipped the target onto Chelsea. And her ability to just drop names like that on a dime – it scares me.”
Is there any name out there that doesn’t terrify Elaine? Can people propose voting someone out on a show that’s about voting people out, without rustling her feathers?
The only name that isn’t a scandal, apparently, is Karishma’s. Karishma is at the bottom of the Lairo hierarchy. For that reason alone, she needs to go.
Erik Reichenbach
ButSurvivoris a much more fluid game now. When was the last time a tribe of 7 people stuck together through bonds of loyalty? By focusing on tribal unity at the expense of the micro-dynamics within that group, Elaine misses the trees for the forest.
Aaron represents the opposite extreme.
“It seems like I’m the only one on this tribe that wants to play this game,” Aaron complains. “Everybody else – they’re trying to play, ‘everybody’s together and no hurt feelings.’ But at some point in time, this game’s got to get bloody.”
It’s true, at some point the game needs to get bloody. But don’t you want to assemble the best army before then? And weren’t the three beefy guys working together just last week?
Dean is a terrible target for Aaron. A big guy like Aaron should want other big targets around – especially one who’s in a showmance, who draws attention to himself from his challenge pratfalls and general clumsiness. Aaron’s biggest real threats are the Karishmas of the game, who are huge targets before the merge but gain tremendous leverage afterward.
Robert Voets/CBS Entertainment
(I always wonder in situations like this, where a handsome, strapping guy like Aaron turns on another handsome, strapping guy who’s in a flirtmance – could there be a hint of jealousy? Not conscious, necessarily, but some subconscious sense that that should be his role?)
Missy offers a pragmatic middle ground. She’s focused not on who she can eliminate – but on who she can save. She wants to keep Karishma around as a pocket vote. “If I cast two votes instead of one, that’s a dope day,” she says. And her interest in taking out Chelsea is one based on thinking of the overall tribe dynamics.
“I need a name that no one’s completely attached to,” she says. Voting out Chelsea keeps the tribe in a beneficial state. “Girls keep the majority, we keep three big guys as protection for us, and Karishma’s still another vote to go later.”
That said, it’s not a bloodless move. Missy alienates Dean, and scandalizes Elaine. While she keeps her pocket vote Karishma, the question remains, how long can she keep Karishma in that pocket? Today may be a dope day, but how dope will tomorrow be?
Of course, one of the biggest strategic factors is simply the chaos ofSurvivoritself. As Elizabeth notes, “Sometimes just the last plan you talked about, that’s the one you go with.” It’s a reminder that in a game that seems so deliberate and strategic, time and randomness are often more decisive factors than individual gameplay.
“That’s unnerving,” Elaine says, forever unnerved. “That plan Z could be the one if that’s you.”
Survivorairs Wednesdays (8 p.m. ET) on CBS.
source: people.com
