Survivor Stupidity - SPOILERS 11/29

[mr. synellinden]

Boy, I don't know whether to feel bad for James or be angry at how he could have been so dumb. I think I feel more bad for him because he is so likable and I would have liked to see him win, but come on man. He had three tribal councils left to use two idols and he had to think he could win immunity at one of the three - which would guarantee the final four. Even if not, didn't he have to use one in each of the next two weeks just to be safe (assuming he didn't win immunity)? It's like a team during a two minute drill not using its timeouts at the beginning. You have to use them any time you can save 20 or 30 seconds running off the clock - don't leave them in the bag and have three time outs left with 25 seconds in the game, because then you are saving fewer seconds with each. I'm off on a tangent here. How does James not realize that for three weeks now he's had a huge target on his back with the two idols?

Two tribal councils ago (the one where Jean-Robert was voted out), I think he got two or three votes, and you saw the panic in his face - like, oh no, I might get voted out here and I have two idols in my bag. How did that not make him realize he has to use them? Or at least threaten it so that everyone else would be afraid of voting for him because if they got the second most votes he'd be out. That's why Yul never had to use it, because people were afraid of that.

By the way, Erick and Pei-gei are now very much in the game. And the thing is they both can win because they have Frosti and Jamie on the jury, they will get the other one's vote and would only need one more - now that James has been backstabbed, he will never vote for his tribe mates. At least the show is getting more interesting.

I still like Amanda to go the distance.

[feldspar]

Could we vote James as the most naive Survivor player ever?

Sheesh.

[dukemomLA]

James was the most likely contender to win it all. His stupidity at not playing one of his immunity idols this week made me think that he is undeserving, especially since he would have many opportunities to win immunity again. Shame. So sorry to see him go -- but, alas, it was his own fault. darn.

[feldspar]

I still like Amanda to go the distance.

I agree, considering Todd's hubris and next week's preview.

[JasonEvans]

1) James is stupid. At least he was not really bitter when it happened to him. I had visions of an angry meltdown when he was voted out. After the second James vote was pulled out of the hat by Jeff, I wish James had spoken up and said, "Uhh Jeff, is it too late to use my immunity idol now?"

2) A couple weeks ago I outlined a scenario where James periodically uses his idols and threatens to use them to ensure that no one takes the risk of trying to vote him out. Having 2 idols put him in a unique situation never before seen in the game. There was no excuse for not making it to the final four under that scenario. He has to be one of the stupidest players of all time.

3) I disagree that Erik and P-G now have power. There are still 4 players from the other side and I cannot fathom why any of them would betray their alliance to join with Erik and P-G. Doing so would alienate a huge percentage of the jury and guarantee that you would not get many jury votes. I guess I could maybe see the Lunch Lady defecting because she appears to be not quite as tight with Todd, Amanda, and Courtney but that would only make it 3-to-3... why would she defect to make things a tie? P-G and Erik need 2 votes to really get back in the game and I don't see that happening. I bet P-G or Erik get the boot this week, despite a preview that was trying to fool us into thinking that something else might be up.

4) I too really like Amanda and the way she is playing the game right now. She has taken a little bit of a leadership role and is starting to engineer a final 3 that she can beat but she is not being so overt as to anger the jury. I think she wants to go to the finals with Lunch Lady Denise and Courtney, neither of whom has done much of anything in the game. I might worry a bit about Courtney as she is charming and clearly will get votes from Frosti and Erik plus she did win an immunity challenge and has the whole "wow, how did she get all the way to the end?" thing going for her. Hmmm, on second thought, Courtney may be a dangerous final 3 opponent.

5) Then there is Todd. I used to think he was in great shape to win it all but I think he will have real trouble with jury votes. He has just backstabbed a few too many folks and I am not sure why because he could have played things differently and been in great shape. I see no way that James or JeanRobert ever vote for Todd at this point. Frosti too may be angry at Todd as I think Frosti thought he was in tighter with the core alliance than either P-G or Erik and Frosti thinks he should have gotten to go further in the game. Todd has not done very well in challenges, so despite being a leader he is probably not seen as all that strong of a player. James probably feels he carried Todd until Todd no longer needed him. Still, if he can get to the finals with really weak players like Courtney and Denise he has a decent chance to win. But, I think he loses to Amanda. A lot may depend upon who does well in the final few challenges-- if Todd or Amanda can show up at Tribal council with the immunity idol around their neck a couple times it could really make them look deserving and push them over the top.

6) James is not the only foolish person on this show. P-G and, to a lesser extent, Erik are also idiots. I won't rehash the lunacy of P-G and Jamie's plan to throw 2 challenges so they could vote out James and Aaron only to see them stupidly abandon the plan after voting out one person. Duuuuuh!! But, the next act of stupidity by P-G came when Amanda told P-G that the alliance would be voting out James. P-G should have taken this info and brought James onto her side. With Erik, James, P-G, and 2 immunity idols, they could have taken over the game and gotten rid of the other 3 people (just have James use one of his idols this week allowing the 3 of them to take out Todd and then you are 3-3 the next week with an idol still in hand). Instead, she does nothing and just lets James get voted out. WHAT?!?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! The other side just gave you hugely important info and you did nothing with it?!?!?! How stupid are you P-G?!?! Did P-G improve her situation by letting James get voted out? Not that I can see. She is still on the outside looking in at a 4-person alliance. She lost a chance to take one of them out and really get an upper hand in the game. I think P-G could have won this whole thing if she had told James what was going on and made an alliance with him and Erik (and perhaps the outsider Denise?). Instead, mark my words, P-G will likely be gone in the next 2 weeks. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!

--Jason "this remains a very weak edition of Survivor" Evans