Survivor: Caramoan 1x7 "Tubby Lunchbox"

Soooo, what's Corinne thinking?  She knows that visibly considering other strategies can be bad, right?

Oh, so I guess we're headed toward the challenge from the preview last week, were Phillip didn't look so good...And he naturally spends all the time before the challenge talking about how awesome he's going to do...Newsflash!  Cochran is a weakling!

So yeah, the challenge from Survivor: Palau, walking around a loop in water, tribemates clipped together and weighted down, with the option of walking out and leaving your weight to someone else.  Good challenge.  Koror eventually lapped Ulong (of course) with very little problem.  That was fun to watch.  That was a great season overall.

Phillip's Bikal put him in front.  He's apparently concerned so much about the weight that he won't run.  Dawn steps out and gives her weight to...Corinne?  Phillip slips and loses the challenge.  Not so great, Specialist.  That title doesn't apply, apparently, to this challenge.

"He sees all of his strengths and none of his weaknesses."

Food reward for Gota!  Andrea takes it as an opportunity to bond with the Fans, but still prepared to vote them out.

Malcolm seems far more comfortable this season.  The turnaround from filming two seasons back-to-back doesn't seem to have affected him.  If anything, it's made him better.  So far.

Corinne, as at the start of the episode, is gunning for Phillip, and now has some ammunition.  All of this is getting Cochran a lot to talk about, though.

I will eat Julia ice cream, for the record.

Phillip is also keen to talk about Julia, who he sees as a potential double agent.  She's willing to consider, but she's also willing to get rid of him.

I believe the Specialist just mispronounced "faux pas."  Which is also a faux pas.  Of course, it's either him or Julia going home tonight, apparently.

Immunity challenge!  It comes down to Phillip and Reynold, because Reynold is now on the same tribe as Malcolm...Gota wins!  Phillip and Bikal go back to tribal...

Phillip says to Cochran that he threw the challenge so the tribe to lose a Fan.  "You can't make up this level of delusion, and that's what excites me about playing with Phillip."  Anything else you can say about Phillip, he makes a pretty interesting version of the same dynamic Cochran had with Coach.

Phillip decides via BR (that would be Boston Rob) logic that it's Michael who needs to go.  Thereby completely alienating Corinne.

Tribal council!

If Jeff trying to make Phillip look bad?!?  Jeff, let's be clear.  Your job is to be awesome, like always, but also to make sure the best characters stay as long as possible.  Just kidding.

Tie!  Of course, it's between Michael and Julia, so Phillip is once again safe one way or the other.

The Julia ice cream bowl melted in the fire, alas.

Next week's the merge!  Also Disgusting "Food" Challenge!

Survivor: Caramoan 1x6 "Operation Thunder Dome"

Breaking news!  The Favorites did not appreciate Brandon's meltdown!

Tribe swapping!  I love the paint egg thing, which was awesome when Ozzy did it in South Pacific and wore the resulting spot on his shirt like a badge of honor the rest of the season...

It's great that the three Fans I don't particularly care to see stick around, Reynold, Sherri and Eddie, are marooned on the Gota...Corinne, meanwhile, doesn't mind joining Bikal, though at this point she doesn't seem to be considering anything but remaining loyal to the old tribe.

Immunity challenge suggests that the Fans don't appreciate having the Specialist around.  I always value Phillip!  And after the loss he sounded hopefully intelligent and calm enough for any viewer to appreciate him.

Phillip attempts induct Matt and Michael into his alliance.  Matt may not be so willing, yet he's game to vote out Julia.  Where are Dawn and Cochran on this?  Cochran is game for it.

Matt is sacrificed mostly out of Corinne's paranoia about a hidden immunity idol.  This episode I finally decided that he could easily have been Survivor's own answer to all the cable reality stars from the dozens of extreme situation show.  Oh well!

For the record, the new alignments are:

Gota (formerly identified as the Favorites):

Malcolm

Andrea

Brenda

Erik

Reynold

Sherri
Eddie

Bikal (formerly identified as the Fans):

Matt (well, until the end of the episode)

Michael

Julia

Phillip

Corinne

Dawn

Cochran

Dawn and Cochran always go together as a unit!

Next time we revisit another moment from Survivor: Palau (this time one of its challenges) and Malcolm appears ready to assert himself!

Survivor: Caramoan 1x5 "Persona Non Grata"

Okay, this last quickie recap for at least the next few weeks can only focus on one thing, and if you know anything about the fifth episode of this season, you already know what that is:

The Brandon Hantz meltdown.

This is something most of us saw coming.  We already had a preview of it earlier in the season, only for Cochran of all people to defuse it.  (By the way, where is he this season???)  Well, this time, only the magic hands of Jeff Probst could hope to at least contain it.  Because this rocket's fuse was lit and there was no putting it out this time.

Brandon Hantz is definitely a Hantz.  He has no clue what being around other people actually means.  That was the whole deal with his uncle Russell for three seasons.  Russell the evil genius who made it to the finals twice, whom no jury would vote for, and a tribe threw a challenge to get rid of before his poison could spread a third time, who thought messing with things around camp behind everyone's backs was perfectly acceptable behavior.  Incredibly, it's true that some fans thought Russell deserved to win.

I wonder if even those delusional idiots thought that in the reunion show for Survivor: South Pacific when Russell basically disowned Brandon for not being Hantz enough, for showing dozens of moments of vulnerability, for not being tough or mean or nasty enough, whatever it is he thinks a Hantz should be.  He probably loved the Brandon of Survivor: Caramoan, or at least approved of him a lot more.

Of course, Brandon is no longer in the game.  For the first time since Survivor: Palau, an impromptu tribal council was held to vote someone out.  This was no Tom/Ian show of mutual respect.  This was a tribe getting Brandon the hell out of the game.  Everyone knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that whatever else is going on with Brandon, he has reached the point where it's clear he shouldn't be playing Survivor anymore.  At least this time, a Hantz figured it out along with everyone else.

I like Brandon.  He's a conflicted young man who has better instincts, I should clarify human instincts, than any other Hantz I've seen on TV.  But he's working against a family tradition that is constantly working against him, and sometimes he has no clue what to make of it.  It's the Survivor: Caramoan reunion show that will prove interesting to watch this time, to see what if any progress he's made, and if Russell can back the hell off of Brandon.

That is all.

Survivor: Caramoan 1x4 "Kill or Be Killed"

More abbreviated thoughts, this time from a more recent episode...Still surprised that the Cochran edit is so light so far this season...Probably still owing to the fact that Shamar existed for one more episode...Pesky shelter didn't protect him from sand in the eye...Not quite Skupin from Australian Outback as far as the exit goes, but he didn't kill a pig...or survive a thousand tiny mishaps...At first I respected Sherri supporting Shamar, but now I just think she's a bitch...She thinks she understands him, but she's really just a condescending boss who doesn't have a clue...Goes with the rest of that tribe, though...Not much for representing the fans, hopefully...At least Cochran had a few good insights in that regard!  Reynold continues to impress in challenges, but he's such an idiot at camp...At this point you'd think someone there would realize that if they don't start rallying around each other they'll all be gone well before the finals...What strikes me about Brandon these days is that he's still the opposite of his uncle Russell, being an asshole to people's faces rather than behind their backs...That apparently will be the theme of the next three days...Yay!

Survivor: Caramoan 1x3 "There's Gonna Be Hell to Pay"

Some quick thoughts, as I only got around to watching this episode on Sunday...This is the first of Shamar's two-part finale.  Clearly the producers realized he was at the very least good TV, because he more or less dominated each of his four episodes (um, SPOILER ALERT for the next episode).  I don't understand how his jerky tribemates found it morally acceptable to in any way make light of his two tours of Iraq.  Regardless of how you feel about that war, that's just something you don't do.  Clearly these would have been exactly the jerks who did the same to Vietnam vets, and that's pretty much all you need to know about modern America.  Anyway, I stand by my sympathy and admiration for the guy.  It's entirely common for the bigger guys to have a hard time staying mobile in this game, and Shamar made no secrets of the problems he's had since he came back from Iraq, so for him to be doing anything is admirable.  But Survivor traditionally is pretty bad about players having any kind of perspective, so it just goes to figure...Still, it's to his tribe and alliance's credit that he survived this episode intact.