Now see, I also have no suspicions about Michael’s accident, and I don’t think the pig was planted, but I just think the rice can was maybe “helped” into place by a staff member. They would have had to give them more rice, but it wouldn’t have been fair to ask for something in return, IMO. It wasn’t their fault that it rained like that, was it? Okay, it was their fault for building the shelter on the dry creek bed, but I just think it was too much of a coincidence that they quickly (and seemingly easily) found the rice.
Oh yes, I think the rice was “planted.” But it doesn’t really matter because the producers would have been in a heap of trouble had they literally let the survivors starve. (I wonder if they allow them to take a multi-vitamin…?) So it was either let them “find” the rice or arrange another way of giving them food.
I also thought the “internet cafe” was a cute way of sneaking in some extra calories. But, as I said, no harm/no foul. As long as they all got an equal portion, who cares?
FTR, I also think the pig was planted. Call me cynical. Do I think Mike’s burns were staged? No. The other survivors were around and I have a hard time imagining Mike sneaking off to the special effects room to have dummy skin put on his hands so that it would like like it was sloughing off. And to accuse him of burning his hands on purpose is simply bizarre. Because had he stayed, he very well may have won the million bucks.
Why would they bother planting a pig? That makes no sense to me. I agree with Fiver, that there is no reason for the producers to plant anything, since they are more than capable of making the game interesting for viewers and non-starvation-inducing for the players. With regards to the pig, I watch Crodocile Hunter fairly often. On one show, he chased wild pigs away from a nest of eggs, and then said that the pigs were not indigenous to Australia. They’ve become a pest, overrunning the Outback and endangering several other species. Based on that and the points that Fiver made, I think it’s pretty easy to believe that Michael found a pig all on his own effort.
I’ll have to agree with Kinsey here, as far as the rice goes. If not exactly “planted” then I think it was at least “helped” into place. Fiver suggests that there is a question as to whether the tribe would look downriver for anything that might have gotten hung up. I don’t think there was any question whatsoever that they would look. I mean, everything they had got washed away! Of course they’re going to see if there is anything salvagable. Wouldn’t you? They’re not going to go, “Oh, boo hoo…we lost all our stuff. Let’s just sit in the mud and see if we starve or freeze to death first.”
So anyway, I think it’s a given that they were going to look for stuff. And the producers had already taken away their tarps and the rest of their stuff had all been washed away, so they didn’t even have anything left to “trade” for more rice. I belive the producers saw an opportunity to keep them from starving that didn’t make the show look bad. The rice just getting hung up on a branch when NOTHING else did is just way too much luck for me.
Now…the pig? I don’t think it was planted. And the burning log? I don’t think that was either. They’d just had forest fires! Fires can burn a LONG time, even through torrential rains…that’s why, when you put your campfire out you have to make sure and stir it up with the water, so that any last embers are soaked. If you don’t, the embers can hang on a long time and when it dries up, they can turn back into a full fledged fire.
IIRC, they found wet clothes and a few other things. I seem to recall Rodger sorting through some stuff. It wasn’t just the rice.