On Survivor 7 Pearl Islands the action shifts to the Pearl Islands jungle. As in the past, 16 contestants compete during the course of 39 days in order to determine who is the ultimate Survivor. The first show will air on September 18th, 2003.
Producers of the show are promising "a new twist" to the game but they didn't go into detail. However, Probst suggests potential players study John Nash's non-cooperative game-playing theory because "all the answers to 'Survivor' are there."
At least this show began on a different note. The cast was suddenly told to jump overboard with their dress outfits on, swam to shore and had to shop/barter for key supplies and initial food staples. The viewers were immediately entertained by Rupert Boneham who took Probst's pirate tales literally and began to pilfer various items from the Morgan Tribe and sell them in the native village marketplace. Later in this episode, he assumed the Richard Hatch role of "Chief" hunter as part of his strategy to ingraciate himself with others.
Nicole Delma immediately took an offensive posture against Tijuana Bradley and raised the possibility of voting her off first when the Morgan Tribe lost the initial immunity challenge. Well her fellow tribesmen didn't agree with her plan and in fact felt that she misrepresented her positions during the initial three days. So the massage therapist was the initial person voted off on Survivor 7.
Hey guys! No chance of getting a free massage now! Think about it! So now you have waitress service not that you're ever going to be served.
Good thing for the Morgan Tribe that Andrew Savage, the lawyer is in charge. He talked Osten Taylor into hanging tough and not quitting the game. That would've been a diaster had the man with the muscles leave the game prior to the merge. Morgan would be dead meat for the rest of the tribal competitions had he left. Ryan Shoulders is the obvious 98 lb weakling and the correct next target.
The real story is the competitions themselves. Someone pointed out what they felt was a problem with this week's reward challenge. I'm not certain of that one but I'm fairly certain of the episode's immunity challenge. I witnessed two apparently different canisters and how easily they were opened. The Morgan Tribe had difficulty loosing the knot on the twine holding it closed, when it wouldn't give they tried to rip the chord off the ends of the canister which seemed to be caught. After taking an enternity, they finally untied the knot enough to get the chord off so they could extract the contents. On the other hand, the Drake Tribe's cannister chord seemed to be loose as they approached the compass circle. It must'd had a poorly tied knot or someone has talons for fingernails!
There's no excuse for this. Imagine if bra's were fastened this securely? You'd never get to 2nd base! Note to CBS props department. Locked underwater trunks, wooden cannisters, treasure chests ( I sense disaster ahead) must be equally easy to open! Find a way to do it or go a different route.
I can comfortably sum up this episode in one word: Rupert! He was the major force in winning both the reward and immunity challenges. Hard to believe the viewers on the message boards were speculating that he could be Drake Tribe's first bootee. They never get rid of the strongest player first!
Instead, it's probably better to make the speculative guess that we're headed towards a tribal shakeup once again. Burnett and company will force personnel exchanges to change the tribal makeup (hopefully equitably) and possibly rebalance the number of castaways on each side. In the past this was done after four episodes have gone by but, maybe it should be undertaken right now.
Whoa just when it looked like Drake was unbeatable, this episode revealed dissention amongst the ranks. Although they won their third immunity competition in a row giving them the last part of the map to the buried treasure which they subsequently recovered, the tribe members have made alliances and identified enemies. Jon Dalton for example, agressively made multiple alliances. Three of the gals banded together and are playing Jon playing them. The men have ostensibly banded together but this isn't the case. There must have been some off camera friction which has occured with Burton making him the target at tribal council.
Strategic Error #1
Never throw an immunity challenge in Survivor. Hell,
Rupert was on top of this,
but wisely defered to the group's collective miscalculation rather than paint
himself as non-cooperative.
Strategic Error #2
Weakest players must be eliminated first during the team portion of Survivor. There are no
exceptions to this rule. All the physically strong and fast people are indispensible in order
to avoid losing the next immunity challenge and to retain the greater number of post merger players.
If Drake isn't careful, it's women players will take over the game early on. I'm beginning to think
the male players on reality shows don't know what they're doing. They can't be this guilible,
can they?
See how problems can cascade? Drake throws one challenge and like a momentum shift in a any sporting competition, your opponents seize control! Rupert helped Ryan Opray of the Morgan Tribe learn to fish, move their shelter and then win the reward challenge! Talk about giving away your edge in the game.
Now Michelle was kicked off because she sided with Burton Roberts who was voted off three days ago. Spearheading her ejection were both Jon Dalton and Shawn Cohen. Shawn appears to have gotten under the skin of several people who would just as soon see him depart next.
So collapse of the Drake Tribe continues. Three consecutive immunity challenge loses in a row. The one occurring on this episode as a result of an error committed by previously voting out a strong male member in the person of Burton Roberts. These minor mistakes come streaming back to haunt you.
The upcoming episode will apparently involve the voted off castaways to some degree. It's not known what happens past their participation in this episode.
So they brought back the already kicked off castaways as a third tribe for a special immunity challenge. Should either or both of the existing tribes lose to the "Outcasts", as the temporary third tribe has named itself, that tribe will vote off a member only to them replaced by someone from the Outcasts. Well both Morgan and Drake lost and the balance of the episode dealt with the dual tribal councils culminating in the evictions of Shawn Cohen and Osten Taylor.
Strategic Error #4
Weakest players must be eliminated first during the team portion of Survivor. Both tribes
wound up repeating this error for good measure but, for varied reasons. Shawn because he's lazy
and Osten cause he flat out quit! What's wrong with these people? They're still in the tribe
competition portion of the game. If they want a possible edge at the merge you'll need the most
athletic males in the immunity competitions.
Another missing item is overall team loyality. Perhaps the producers aren't showing it. They must give some thought to block voting even after the upcoming merge.
Lastly, the supposedly leaked winner of Survivor 7 is Sandra Diaz-Twine. Now this being an ODD numbered issue of Burnett's creation, a man is supposed to win. The other hyped winner was Osten Taylor who just departed. Combine this plus the increasing air time that Sandra's getting and I'm turning into a believer.
As I've mentioned on my Big Brother commentary, don't bring people back. It's means you can't be totally cutthroat while playing people during the game because they may return in a revengeful manner. In the example we may have before us, the entire Morgan Tribe sans Lillian Morris, is likely to get "Pagonged" out of existence in consecutive order. All this cause Andrew Savage considered Lillian to be expendable. He played Lil with the ole "I'll get back to ya" phrase. Well she got back to him!
If it plays out this way, or perhaps with a detour to remove Rupert Boneham somewhere in the middle of the "Pagonging" of Drake process, it will come down to the same old boring two men and two women from the same tribe. The one that caught the favorable first vote following the merge.
A straightforward "Pagonging" episode where the strongest person in the soon to be defunct Morgan Tribe is voted off. With the count standing at 5 to 3 in Drake's favor, they could utilize the next episode to remove Rupert Boneham and maintain the voting majority.
Well everyone is saddened but that's the correct move. I lobbied for Rich's removal during Survivor Pulau Tiga. Naturally the initial group was inexperienced but, they were reluctant to dump the primary food hunter. The current group is more interested in winning then eatting. It goes without saying that Rupert is a danger to win every challenge out there.
Only problem with the current configuration of the game is the huge imbalance. No, not the 4-3 Drake to Morgan ratio, the 5-2 women to men plurality. I think the men are blissfully unaware of this rather formidable mismatch. So the predictions of a woman winning this become easier to believe.
Keanu says "Whoa" and we agree! Two of the most deceitful people and they're both getting away with it! I hope both Sandra and Jon are not the winners. They are distrustful of each other and yet Sandra let Joh talk her out of acting against Burton in the end. This after Sandra worked so hard to bring Tijuana Bradley around to acting against the men.
Strategic Error #5 (Minor)
Never give anyone a break! As this was happening I was talking back at the TV saying "What are
you people doing?" You want to see your own loved ones and of course everyone has their own personal
hardships. You don't cut someone a break based on a storyline someone hands you for 5 minutes.
The reunuion hour at the end of the show promises to be interesting.
Strategic Error #6
Strongest players must be eliminated first during the merged tribe portion of Survivor. This
important rule nevertheless takes a back seat to gaining majority tribe control of the voting process.
Currently, Drake has the upper hand so they can take a moment to go out of sequence
and eliminate Burton which they were initially planning to do.
Jon was able to talk the gals out of this despite screwing them by eliminating
Rupert last time. They might not get a better chance to remove Burton. They
should've acted now.
Strategic Error #6 Cont.
Strongest players must be eliminated first during the merged tribe portion of Survivor.The women continue to knock themselves out of the game. I realize they're interested in eatting which is why
Burton remains and Jon has fallen into the role of the ideal
despised runner-up but, what happens if one of the gals intends to side with the men and you don't
expect it?
People speculating on who's the next person voted off believe Johnny Fairplay bites the dust this next episode. I never understood his late game strategy in any case. He only has one serious two person alliance at this point and is counting on swaying a sufficient number of the others to side with them. I think the gals finally decide to exert their majority control.
Do you remember what I mentioned was obvious as far back as Episode 10? As you eliminate players from the game you must constantly be aware of the various factions remaining and how many people comprise each category. The men let the women grab the upper hand and now it's time to pay the piper.
The only interesting strategy left involves Sandra and Lil considering the ouster of Darrah in favor of taking Jon to the final two with one of them. I think this would give them the best chance at winning the final vote.
The final episode appeared to wrap up with a repeat of Survivor 2 where the person who should have won (Lillian Morris) was so intent on preventing an underserving person from winning that she forwent her own victory in order to insure someone else's defeat.
Incredible, would it have been so bad if Jon had won? Take a chance and go up against the obviously most disliked player in the game.
I completely resent this wonner. Under no circumstances should someone who messes with the food supply ever win this game. Besides that, she was comfortable with allowing the blame for missing food to fall on Christa Hastie who was too stupid to be resentful.
 |
Age: 31 Marital Status: Single From: San Francisco, California Occupation: Marketing Executive Commentary: It would appear this marketing maven has no clue on how to market himself! Drake deliberately lost it's first immunity challenge in order to evict Burton. |
 |
Age: 24 Marital Status: Single From: Danville, VA Occupation: Art Consultant Commentary: Jeff Probst said that he had arguments and a difficult time dealing with Jon. Now the rest of America agrees. What's with this guy's pose at tribal councils, between arms crossed like a mummified Egyptian Pharaoh and flashing the dual Richard Nixon victory V's he acts positively flamming gay. |
 |
Age: 22 Marital Status: Single From: Pittstown, NJ Occupation: Student Commentary: One of those early cast-offs who choose the wrong initial alliances. |
 |
Age: 39 Marital Status: Married From: Indianapolis, IN Occupation: Troubled Teens Mentor Commentary: Instanteously, Rupert became an enormous favorite with the fans. What a character! |
|
Age: 29 Marital Status: Married From: Ft. Lewis, WA Occupation: Office Assistant Commentary: One of Final 2? I can't believe this women screwed with the food supply and then allowed another person to take the blame. This is worse then anything Jon Dalton has done. Hopefully they take her out before the final two. |
 |
Age: 40 Marital Status:
Married From: Chicago, IL Occupation: Attorney Commentary: Andrew "I'll get back to ya" Savage fell victim to the returning wrath of Lillian Morris who exacted revenge on him for instigating her departure. This guy maybe to blame for doing in his entire tribe. |
 |
Age: 27 Marital Status: Single From: Boston, MA Occupation: Equity Trade Manager Commentary: One of Final 2? |
