Survivor 21 Ep 3: "Glitter In Their Eyes"

[lazarus]

I think that was a mistake. Dan is weaker, in that he's as useless in the challenges as Jimmy J, and he does nothing around camp, while Jimmy J is out fishing and gathering wood and stuff. The tribe now belongs to Marty, who doesn't appear to understand the game nearly as well as he thinks he does.

Na Onka continues to make the case that she's one of the most unpleasant people in the history of the show. She's just filled with unreasoning hate. I'd be very unhappy if my daughter was in her PE class, I can assure you.

She's also not that bright. The clues are fairly obvious. Then again, I thought the first set of clues were obvious, too. On the third hand, I'm sitting at home, well-rested and well-fed. But on the other other other hand, what else do they have to do besides think about stuff like that?

The challenge was fairly balanced, I thought. The only change I'd have made is to mandate their taking turns throwing the balls.

Next week: Na Onka continues to be an unpleasant bully who is in an unfortunate (for us) position of power and security.

[murielm99]

1. They felt threatened by Jimmy J.

That is why those alpha males needed to get rid of him. It was a mistake.

Tyrone seems to be the only one who sees things clearly. I hope that is not his undoing. I like him. I would like to see him win.

Na is demented. Why wasn't she thrown out of the game? I thought they were not allowed to put their hands on each other. She clearly knocked Kelly down and mashed all those bananas. And on the previews she threatened vandalism to Kelly's prosthetic leg. Is that allowed? They need to get rid of that nutcase.

Things they do on this show can come back to haunt them. Na is a teacher. Will that affect her job? I would object to having her teach in any of our local schools. I can see parents requesting that their children be assigned another teacher. Even if she behaves in a completely professional manner on the job, people will not forget how she behaved on this show.

[romana]

2. Alpha males

Yeah, I think outsting Jimmy J at this point was a pure alpha male move, and made no sense. At this point in the game, you don't WANT to be the leader (something Jill has figured out already). That paints a big target on your back, and Marty is particularly clueless about that.

Na Onko or whatever the hell her name is seems to be a stupider version of Russell at this point to me. All obnoxious anger that she can't seem to hold in. I can't wait for her to go away. She isn't even good TV--she's offensive.

I continue to be fascinated by Jill's game. Her game seems to be to put alpha males like Marty in charge and then quietly try to influence them as much as she can. She all but gave Marty that immunity idol, something he seems to have conveniently forgotten. She strikes me as a pretty smart cookie, though she's playing a risky game because Marty is unstable as a leader, especially with all that competition.

[murielm99]

3. When you think about it, that is probably how Jill lives

her life. She is a female ER doc, right? She has to appear to let men take charge, or allow men to take charge so that she can do her job. After they get comfortable around her, men begin to respect her. After a while, she gets the decision making and leadership roles she deserves. Many professional women have to behave that way in order to survive.

[lazarus]

4. good point

At this stage, she's flying under the radar. She could turn out to be a Natalie, winning because she subtly played the goat. OTOH, she could turn out to be a Becky (Cook Islands), whose contributions to strategy and tactics were ignored in favour of Yul. It's a dangerous line to walk. At some point, she has to make moves of her own that people can see and recognize.

[romana]

5. ER Docs

I think that's how *Jill* might operate, but it's not how all female ER doctor's operate. Or it might just be Jill's strategy for this game--I don't think you can make any really solid assumptions about anyone in the real world based on how they are on Survivor.

Jill is clearly smart, and she's clearly employing an "under the radar, manipulate the alpha males" strategy. This has worked in the past and given the personalities we've seen so far on her tribe, may work again, at least for an opening strategy. I like Jill so far--I hope she stays in the game until the end. She's definitely caught my eye early.

[dr.strangelove]

6. bye jimmie

I have to agree, this was a mistake. Jimmie Johnson was the perfect leader. He could be taken out whenever they needed to, and he was actually good at getting three alpha males to co-exist. I suspect the team falls apart now. Marty was probably smart to reveal the idol. Since his partner in the idol is weak, she would probably soon be one of marty's targets, it was bound to come out. He precluded the mistrust damage this way.

Overall a boring episode. I was turned off by Naonka. she was just mean. I get that its a game, but there is clean play and mean play. Beat the girl, but don;t take cheap shots.

I can;t wait to get to double challenge days. I predict a quick end for Naonka.

[travelingtypist]

7. Yep, Coach sure seemed to want to go.

I hope that foreshadowing wasn't of Na doing something to Kelly B's prosthetic. The producers should do an automatic disqualification on something that nasty.

[lazarus]

8. it's worrying

there's never been a DQ on Survivor for rules-breaking, although a lot of former survivors have said they'll never participate again until the producers do something about antics like Russell's.

Russell set a bad precedent, so I don't know how they'll handle Na if she does something horrid.