
(S18E11) Yes, it's the Tribal Council snake from Survivor. You see, Sue Hawk (season one) called it. Remember her epic speech to Richard Hatch and Kelly Wiglesworth? "There are two things on this island, snakes and rats." I'm looking at the group we have left this season. I'm thinking there are more fuzzy mice than snakes and rats. I think there's a vulture or two in there, too. But this is one season I'm not rooting for the snake to eat the rat.
The snake
This season's snake is Coach. However, he's not the king snake he thinks he is. If there's such a thing as a buffoon snake, that's him. With his delusions of grandeur, his silly hair and outfits, and his constant extolling his own virtues ... he's just not a good snake at all. The only reason he's a snake is because these fools on the show, with the exception of the Tyson blindside last week, seem to do his bidding. They mock him, yet they tend to do what he wants them to do. What's up with that?
Fuzzy mice
Stephen is definitely a fuzzy mouse. You can almost see his whiskers twitching when he feels fear. Sure, he has some good ideas. But he'll never make it to either rat or snake level unless he steps up to the plate very soon. He's scared of everything alliance-wise and he makes bad choices (following the snake's lead).
JT is a fuzzy mouse, too. He's physically strong and definitely can handle himself in the elements. But he can't seem to make up his mind without Stephen, Taj or (gasp) Coach leading the way. If he keeps riding that snake, the snake is going to turn around and bite him back.
Vultures
In nature, vultures gather together and fight over dead carcasses. While the vultures this season aren't really after dead prey, they're following the wind and perhaps catching the waft of the weak. Debbie, Erinn, and Taj are all vultures. Each one is playing a sneaky game, but not sneaky enough to be called a snake. They all tend to put things in motion and sit back to let others take both the blame and the glory.
The bait
That's what Sierra has been all season. In the beginning, they wanted to vote her out. I'm getting that everyone gets annoyed by her. But they're playing a game for a million dollars. If I were there, I'd vote out sneaky people before some lost soul no one likes who isn't all that good in challenges.
Tonight's mistakes
I'm sure Erinn voted for Stephen because she had a horrible time on Exile Island. She had to think of it as a throwaway vote or perhaps thought it might cause a tie between Sierra and Debbie. Stephen brought that upon himself. It could cause problems down the road.
The Taj, JT, and Stephen vote was split up. They know they want Coach and Debbie out of the game eventually. Taj went with the original plan to vote off Debbie while the guys switched to vote off Sierra. Taj, JT, and Stephen certainly have a stronger alliance than they do with Coach and Debbie. They could have made the Dragon Slayer in the Lone Wolf tonight and they didn't.
I'd like to call Coach's winning Immunity a mistake. He hasn't won anything yet this season and would have probably been voted out had he not won. So, it wasn't a mistake on his part; it was the mistake of everyone else for losing.
Sweet moments
Although she ended up being voted out, Sierra called Coach out on the lies he told about her wanting to get the Timbira alliance back in action. So, at least they all know Coach is indeed a liar despite his ongoing assessment of himself as such a fine specimen of integrity (and blah-blah-blah). The other sweet moment for me came during Tribal Council when Brendan couldn't contain his laughter as Coach strutted on by.
I've instituted my own new vision of the winner this season. I call it my ABC Aim -- Anybody But Coach.















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-01-2009 @ 7:30AM
DapperDan said...
" Stephen is definitely a fuzzy mouse. You can almost see his whiskers twitching when he feels fear. " don't forget that weird eye thingy he does, its like one eye gets bigger than the other LOL Oh and Debbie is as much a liar as Coach when it came to the whole Sierra asking them to band together with Erin and Debs saying Erin will be mad at Stephen for sending her to exile and that Erin would probably vote with them, than saying she didn't say that. When Sierra called her out on it Debs probably got worried the others might believe that Coach and she approached Sierra and that since Coach had immunity she'd be the one to go, so she brought on the crocodile tears and her age " I am too old for this " than honey you should be voted out we can't have you breaking your hip over your lying now can we.
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5-01-2009 @ 8:21AM
laura said...
Two things I dont understand:
1) all the negative feelings towards Sierra "most likely to stab you in the back" "will squander the money" "the person you dont want to see win" Unless the editing crew left something on the cutting room floor I didnt see sierra play any different game than the rest of them!
2) Erinns vote for stephen, is she really that clueless about how this game works? you dont grudge vote by yourself to prove something! and if this was her attempt at staying nuetral to the jury "I didnt vote for you sierra!" than she is a nutcase!
Debbie and Coachs deception and Debs subsequent crying jag was so pitiful. I hope they show what really went down between sierra and those two at the reunion show, vindicate Sierra and make Deb and Coach look more the fools than they really are.
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5-01-2009 @ 9:05AM
Christian H. said...
I also don't get why everyone hates Sierra so much. I actually rooted for her since day one. But I guess we weren't treated with a lot of footage which was not in her favor.
Now I gotta switch to Stephen, who I think plays it quite smart. He is never a choice for elimnation... EVERYONE is, but never him. He is no big threat, he does not get on anybodys nerves and he knows how the game works...
Erin just voted for him because he sent her to Exile Island. And I couldn't make out what her note on the vote was, but I am very sure it was a kind one. She does not hold a grudge and she consideres her vote a throwaway vote.
Which makes me wonder why noone approached her before tribal. I mean: Sierra sure should have.
Now Erin is the sitting duck, but I got the feeling from the promos, that Debbie made the wrong move and will be the next one on the chopping block.
Overall a quite entertaining episode (although the challenges were boring).
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5-01-2009 @ 9:49AM
Mary Beth said...
Erinn voted for Stephen because she had promised not to vote for Sierra. . . and I think she's thinking jury pool down the line. Her "never again, i swear" was a promise not to vote for him again. That's what she said in the voting video on CBS anyway. I don't think she held any grudge for Exile.
I think Taj also promised to vote with Sierra but it also makes Coach/Debbie think they have a strong alliance with Jt/Stephen so that this coming week, they won't feel the need to scramble so much and might continue to think they're overly secure.
Stephen/JT/Taj have played a smart game, imo,. . . . seeing the fissures in Timbura and doing everything they could to ensure it self-destructed and kept them safe. I don't think they're "following the snake's lead" at all, but rather, letting the snake *think* he has the lead.
Yeah, I would have liked Debbie (or Coach before he won immunity) to go this week, and I think the Jal3 actually believed Sierra over the others, but they also have a tighter control over Debbie/Coach than Sierra. She's too much of a wild card. Plus, damage was done, it seems like, and Debbie sells out Coach next week in the preview. If Debbie were voted out, Jal3 ran the risk of Sierra finally convincing Coach and Errin to try to take out one of them and get the idol in play. This way, they kept the numbers and their potential "alliance mates" comfortable with them.
Still, ALL of them are fools if they don't see "Who would you not want to win the million" as "Who should you be trying to take to the F2 with you, you numbskulls" and "who do you trust most" as "who should you be kicking off post-haste because you stand no chance against him in the F2."
But these guys aren't playing to win a million. They're playing it safe to get to their preferred F2/F3. Considering Jal3 came in with diminished numbers, they're doing pretty well to keep that threesome intact.
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5-01-2009 @ 9:52AM
jag said...
I would have gotten rid of Debbie first. We also don't get to see what doesn't show up on camera. You think Stephen would have said something to Erinn about why he sent her to Exile Island. He brought her a sweater in the rain at the immunity challenge and she still voted for him.
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5-01-2009 @ 10:54AM
Mike said...
Erinn's vote for Stephen wasn't about revenge for Exile, I don't think... She promised Sierra that she wouldn't vote for her. She knew they weren't voting off Debbie and she didn't want to risk the stone with a tie. So, she made a completely safe vote. Nobody was going to be voting for Stephen under any boggling plan... thus, it was safe to throw it that way. Who else would she have voted for? I think she's closest with Stephen, and that's why she did it. Stephen sent her to exile because he thinks she's one of their stronger allies. He brought her the sweater, which she was thrilled about, and her vote even said, "never again"... it clearly wasn't adversarial to send her to Exile or for her to vote for him....... it's just them playing the game smarter than almost anyone in the history of the game.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's never been a case where a tribe that went into the merge 2 people down won, has there?
Personally, once Debbie and Coach are gone I'd be happy with any of them winning.
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5-01-2009 @ 11:34AM
Scott said...
Can't stand coach, or people like him. He tries to come off as all calm and in control, espousing virtues like integrity, honesty, and nobility. But it's all a facade, behind which he's a liar and a hypocrite. I've never disliked a single Survivor more, and I will drink champagne when Coach finally gets voted off. I hope it's a blindside.
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5-01-2009 @ 11:34AM
Scott said...
One last thing I need to say... about watching Erin on Exile. Okay... before it started to rain, but this applies to every single Survivor. You can buy a good sized knife and/or machete and a piece of flint at any camping/outdoors store in the country. Anybody who gets chosen to compete on Survivor who doesn't spend at least 3 hours a day for a month before they leave their home for the show learning how to make a fire with a blade and flint is an IDIOT. Not only can it make you very useful around camp and self-sufficient on Exile, it can save you at Tribal and could win you the million dollars, which is the ultimate Survivor goal. These people who, after how many seasons of the show, and how many fire-making tie-breakers, go on the show and still don't know how to make a fire with flint get no sympathy from me.
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5-01-2009 @ 12:27PM
BF said...
To me, the best part (for the Jal3) of how the vote went down is the appearance that Taj and JT/Stephen have a fracture. If I was them, I'd sell that point and then blindside Coach or Debbie. Depending on Erinn's loyalties, this may be the only real time to play the hidden idol coming up. Once it goes down to 3-2, they won't need it.
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5-01-2009 @ 12:35PM
zeeguy said...
One of them should be smart enough to bring Coach with him/her to the final. Who would vote for Coach to win the $1M? Does anyone of them really believe any of his stories?
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5-01-2009 @ 3:49PM
Calum said...
I respect Erinn a whole lot more for not voting for Sierra (I'm assuming that the only reason for the Stephen vote was because she told Sierra she wouldn't vote for her). Partly because she's never really been trusted till last week, she's always seemed a little slimy and like she wouldn't care for a second about anything she'd said to anyone, so I was surprised but impressed that she would stand by what seemed like a throwaway line. Hopefully she clears it up quickly next week and doesn't leave paranoid Stephen worried about her loyalty. I also hope they touch on Taj's vote next week-I'm interested to see whether she decided to go on her own because she knew they had the votes anyway or whether she wasn't told of the plan intentionally.
And I'm still flummoxed by the hatred toward Sierra-the only time she's backstabbed anyone was the vote for Coach-which was a vote when literally every single person in the game except Erinn who had no alliances backstabbed someone with their vote. Yet they still all despise her both personally and in the context of the game. I could see she might get a bit annoying considering she has constantly had to scramble, but that level of hatred and distrust just seems unfair, especially when it gets so personal.
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5-10-2009 @ 8:12AM
SHARVT731 said...
I agree with Christian H what was so horrible about Sierrra? I never saw her act in anyway that would make the others dislike her so, it is a complete mystery to me. Especailly when you have people there like coach, who gives me the absolute creeps, and yet he keeps staying week after week with all his B.S. he should have gone a long time ago, I really believe in all his delusuion, and the fact that he is still there he really believes he will be the "Dragon Slayer" and win the mill.
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