I think Joel brings new meaning to the word “stupid”, even by Survivor standards. “I can’t believe they voted me out and kept the 98-pound weakling.” Joel? Hello!! Anybody in there? That’s exactly what you yourself did in the last two votes! How can you sit there and tell the world that you don’t understand a strategy that YOU came up with, advocated, and employed in the last two tribals?
In fact, when Joel decided to vote out the strong and keep the weak, there was no strategic justification for it. In the early game, before even a scramble, getting rid of strong players is just suicide.
But voting out Joel at this point has, as Glory pointed out, at least some strategic justification. So Joel is doubly an idiot.
At least he, though grudgingly, did mention the poetic justice aspect. He really did dig his own grave. If it’d been Mikey, or even Mary, on the other end of his rope, he’d still be in the game.
So, assuming Penner is told/urged/given the option to drop out next week (per the preview of the presumed English (Aussie?) accented medic telling him that an infection could be life-threatening)…
What can they do for Penner out of the tribe that they couldn’t do while he were still playing? I’d think they’d give him a shot of antibiotics or just oral antibiotics, and he could elevate his leg and stay off of it. Why couldn’t he do this while still being in the game (aside from challenges) ? Is there some limit to treatment in the show’s unrevealed rules? Can’t the medics just check him every evening? There’s a whole invisible (to us) crew around those people every day, I wouldn’t think medics would be any more intrusive.
If Jonathan gets a bad infection, he may need to get an IV inserted, and IV antibiotics, which obviously puts him out of the game. Also, if he’s still eating next to nothing, and living in filthy conditions, that is more likely to increase the severity of the infection - “keep it clean” is actually pretty important for those kinds of injuries. So they may pull him because they don’t want him to get to the hospitalization phase. Even so - I don’t think the rules allow sitting out challenges due to injury, so his team would be stuck with a guy who can’t walk, and lose their challenges, which would presumably lead to his immediate ouster.
(as told to me by my wife, an RN.)
Not for the first time, I really wish they had cameras in Loser Lodge. I’d love to see Mike & Mary’s reaction when Joel came strolling in.