Survivor 5/8: "If It Smells Like A Rat, Give It Cheese"

I was so flabberghasted and angry when I saw he was going to give up the necklace, I jumped up from the couch and went straight to something less offensive to my sensibilities, like loading the dishwasher. I hate all of the remaining women, except Cirie (though I don’t exactly love her). Erik wasn’t playing a strategic game that was going to win him anything, but still, he’s not a cheshire cat-grinning Pretty Girl that makes me want to bash her teeth in. I seriously don’t know if I will watch the finale, because I’m not looking forward to the people I found least likable getting financially rewarded.

Erik is a helluva naive dumbass, but at least he had other, redeeming qualities. Grumble.

No mention of what a genius Cerie is? I mean, it was her idea. Who would’ve even thought anyone would be as stupid as Erik was. She needs to watch her back, because once the jury finds out it was her, she’s a lock to win.

That was one of the most amazing things I think has ever happened on this show. When Cerie first got the idea (and you’re right John Mace…what an evil genius she is!), I had two almost-simultaneous thoughts: 1) “They’ll never pull this off,” and 2) “OMG, I thnk they might really pull this off, because he doesn’t seem to have a clue.” Can’t believe they really did it. The acting those women did during Tribal was impressive.

Oh, God. If she doesn’t win it will be the biggest injustice ever. Cirie is the greatest player in Survivor history. She has one tool - her mind - and she keeps crushing players that should be able to beat her easily. I think she only works at the challenges for effect. She has little or no chance of winning. She plays the part of the game that doesn’t involve challenges like a maestro.

I’ve always thought that winning challenges is a bit overrated. The game isn’t really about challenges, it’s about relationships, manipulation, and gaming the system. Probst makes a big deal over them, as though Ozzy and James were going to walk right into the final 3. Well, we saw how that turned out.

It seems like a lot of times being good at challenges backfires on people, anyway. Hell, why bother winning challenges if you’re smart and devious enough to convince people to give away their immunity anyway?

Oh lord, I felt just awful when all the girls were out-and-out laughing at Erik at the end of Tribal. Women can be extremely vicious, but usually they try to hide it if at all possible, and give their target a chance at some dignity, at least a little. They weren’t even trying - they were just amazed at how stupid Erik was (and he was), but they made no effort to hide it, none whatsoever. Very poor form, and I’m ashamed of them.

In the mean time… Erik, poor Erik. We hardly knew ye. Hell: you hardly knew ye. Jeez. I was wondering what the heck was up with him running away from tribal; I hope there was an intervention team handy to prevent a cliff dive or whatever. Poor kid.

And once again Cerie comes up with the plan and it happens just that way. I’ve been a Cerie skeptic, but she really does have the touch.

I liked Erik because of his naive innocence. It’s fitting that that’s what cost him in the end. Man, oh man. What a stupid move.

That being said, I hope one of the single women that just screwed him over gives him a pity lay or something to make up for what they did. I think the guy deserves it. :stuck_out_tongue:

I loved the reactions from the jury members. Especially James’s outburst.

Everything has already been said but Cirie’s line:

This would be the ultimate Jedi mind trick.

was right on the money.

Best season ever. Including season one. In fact, what these women have achieved, and how they have achieved it, has eclipsed the bestness of all the other seasons combined. Down down down went the powerful and mighty men, all victims of superior tactics and strategy. Let the ladies laugh. They earned it.

And now, watching them turn on each other with full claws will be wonderful. :slight_smile:

The really funny thing is imagining Ami’s reaction when she finds out that the thing she was trying so hard to do in her season (the all-woman final four) was achieved by the people who voted her out…

Well, at least we know why Erik is an “ice cream scooper” and hasn’t graduated to cashier yet.

I really hope Cirie wins. I really intensely dislike the other three. Of course, it seems like every season I only like one or two people at the end.

I couldn’t believe they hid another Immunity Idol. I assumed that once one was successfully used, there would be no more hidden idols. Therefore, I was incredibly frustrated by all the strategizing about who would be sent to Exile Island, up until the point where Jeff announced that there was in fact a new idol hidden.

Which turned out to be unimportant(ish) when Erik won the Immunity Idol and was persuaded to give it up. Stupid move. Especially since Jason came thisclose to be voted off despite a promise from EVERYBODY that if he dropped out of an earlier challenge and shared food that he’d be kept around. And given the number of blindsides this season . . .

And I felt bad for Erik since he was getting in trouble for making promises to all the women–since I think at least some of the women were encouraging him to believe that they were open to alliances with him. But I didn’t feel bad that he got voted off after giving up the Immunity Necklace–because he should have known darn well what was going to happen if he did so.

I do kinda like the fact that it’s an all female Final Four.

Okay, I don’t watch this show, but can someone give me a thumbnail sketch of what happened? Obviously something devious and Machiavellian

StG

Cerie better win. I can’t stand her, but she has mastered the Game beautifully. I thought James was actually going to pee himself, he was laughing so hard.

“I’m not the dumbest Survivor any more!”

I shouldn’t attempt something this involved at work, but whattayagonnado?

Okay, the way Survivor works is that there is an immunity challenge every episode. The winner of the immunity challenge gets the immunity necklace, which protects him from getting any votes at Tribal Council (which is when the tribe votes someone out).

This week, the last remaining man in the tribe, a 22-year-old with tons of naivete and enthusiasm and not apparently all that much common sense and cynical distrust, won immunity. The women were somewhat annoyed, because he was supposed to be the next one voted out, for an all-woman Final Four (which has never happened in 16 seasons of this show).

The holder of the immunity necklace can choose at Tribal Council before the voting to give the necklace (and thus immunity) to another person, leaving themselves open to being voted out. This has only happened once before in 16 seasons of this show, and that was by Rob Cesternino (who holds a virtual grandmaster status for game theory) in the Amazon season.

Anyway, one of the women, Cirie (who is some kind of master puppeteer in this game) had a plan…convince Erik, because he’d been caught out trying to play all the remaining players with promises about Final Three, to give up immunity to “prove his trustworthiness”. As another player, Natalie, said, “I feel stupid just listening to this”.

And yet…it worked. Natalie talked to him, Cirie talked to him, Amanda talked to him. They played it all the way through Tribal Council, just perfectly. And he caved and gave his immunity necklace to Natalie. And everyone except Erik knew exactly what was going to happen next when the remainder of the tribe voted…

Erik was voted out.

It was an absolutely delightful and exsquisite piece of double-play, trickery and acting, and I am so glad that I had the chance to see it first run!

What did Erik say earlier in the episode to Amanda? Something like “There’s more than just hair up here (pointing to his head)” While that may be true, the extra space certainly isn’t occupied by brains.

You have some general knowledge of how the show works, right? A big group of people living in primitive conditions, at the end of every episode the remaining players vote off one of the group, the last one left wins $1M.

On every episode, there’s a challenge, usually a physical or physical+mental task with one winner. The winner gets Immunity, which means the other players cannot vote for them at the end. However, the winner is allowed to give Immunity to another player, leaving themselves vulnerable.

Last night, before the challenge, Erik (the sole remaining male) had been pretty much told he was going to be voted off. He won Immunity though, so he couldn’t be voted off. Except the 4 women came up with a plan. 2 of the women (Cirie and Natalie) convinced him to give Immunity away as a mark of “good faith” or something like that - if he did, they’d vote for Amanda, not him. If he didn’t give it away, Cirie would still vote for Natalie, which somehow would be worse for him(?) Erik, wily moron that he is, said he’d consider it, but only if they’d vote for Parvati. Cirie and Natalie, shocked that he was even discussing it, agreed. At the vote, Erik gave Immunity to Natalie, at which point everyone, even Natalie and Cirie, started laughing at him, and all 4 women voted against Erik.

Me too, and agreed. Big time.

You know it’s an historic tribal council when they show every single vote to the camera before Jeff even gets them. After they showed them all, I immediately rewound the DVR to watch the brilliance of Cirie as the idea came to her. Fuckers didn’t have her in frame, and barely caught the audio; it was in subtitles while the camera was on Parvati.

Parvati: If he didn’t have that necklace, he’d be gone. [Look of resigned frustration]
[pause]
Cirie: [quietly] What if he gave the necklace to Natalie?

That is the one sentence of Survivor history that most deserved to be on camera.

Though I’m still rooting for Amanda and still think Parvati most deserves the win, I’d like to defend Cirie on the challenge front. She doesn’t completely suck, though sometimes she gives the same effort that Parvati displayed in looking for the HII. Cirie hauled ass in the three-legged game of tag in the maze that (eventually) knocked Jonathan out of the game. And on her original season, I seem to recall her kicking ass at the spear-throwing vase-breaking challenge.

And why he is still an Ice Cream Boy and has not yet graduated to Ice Cream Man.

I sure hope he made a move on Amanda during the overnight, 'cause he sounded like a puppy-dog-crush-laden adolescent looking for some Survivor-reward-challenge Lovin while riding in the helicopter with his let’s get away from the game for a day line.

The funny thing is that, when presented with the idea of giving up the Immunity Idol from Natalie (WWOTT*), he said that’s not an option

*WWOTT=Wicked Witch of the Tribe

Erik really does have a mind that looms like an imposing cliff. Of chalk.

Seriously…if you manage to be the last person to talk to him, your idea will be put into action by him. If you work on even a ridiculous and stupid idea long enough, he will do what you want him to, even if common sense is standing on his head, a bullhorn in one hand, semaphore flags in the others, screaming at him to ignore you.