My thoughts on the 2nd episode of this season of Survivor follow. They may not mesh with your thoughts. Too bad, their mine.
Stray Vote:
Josh immediately reveals to Baylor that he was the one who voted for her. He claims it was a ploy to make sure the rest of the group doesn't think they're too close. He also claims that this makes their 2-person alliance even stronger.
Baylor doesn't agree and neither do I. Baylor will never trust him like she may have before.
It may have the intended effect on the rest of the tribe, but also an unintended effect where they see him as someone who doesn't stick to the voting plan.
Reward Challenge:
I enjoy these loved ones head-to-head challenges. Adds way more spice than a full team challenge. I applaud John for choosing himself to represent Coyopa, but I'm amused that he seems to think any game involving a ball should be one he, as a former pitcher, should dominate at. If you saw the episode you know that Julie destroyed him due to two things: a smaller stature to help her navigate obstacles, and patience to complete the obstacles slowly to ensure she doesn't make a mistake.
Exile Related Thoughts:
I liked Julie's choice of sending Jeremy to Exile with John.
I liked Jeremy sharing his clue with John. Why not? Any move that curries favor, and especially one that doesn't hurt your own chances of finding the idol at your camp.
The clue is essentially the same as last week except they provide 2 more symbols and their translations. We see a symbol that translates to "7", and another that translates to "North".
Immunity Challenge:
Perfect! No complaints from me about recycling this challenge from the last Blood vs Water. American Gladiator style push the other person off the platform with a padded weapon. Physical battles are always great, and throw in some head-to-head loved ones battles and it's even better. I loved how close this one came, even if it was due to editing down from a larger subset of battles. If my memory doesn't fail me, John disappointed. Baylor vs her mom Missy was interesting. A harmless injury led off
their battle, with Baylor getting a split lip from their heads banging.
Neither took advantage of this shock, so Jeff counted them back in once
Baylor agreed she was fine, but Missy's energy was gone. I would have put money on the farm girl, Kelley, standing victorious over the beauty queen, Jaclyn. I was wrong on their first match-up, but Kelley reigned supreme in the rematch which sealed the victory for Hunahpu.
Thinking:
Val and John discuss the clue to the idol. Val claimed she found an idol at camp and on Exile and would use them to save both her and Jaclyn. Excellent thinking - get them to target someone else completely. John buys it, tells others, a decision is made to split the vote. John and Jeremy had promised to look after each other's significant others. So John does his best, given the situation, and tells Val to play her idol and save herself.
Hidden Idol
Meanwhile, somewhere in there John thought about his idol clue: Water, Dig, 7, North. He didn't try to decipher the lid to the well, much to my dismay. Instead he took a stab at it and took 7 paces north of the well, into the low-lying brush, and started digging. I laughed at him. Then he found it. I stopped laughing. I simultaneously A) disapproved of the clues leading to the discovery of the idol so easily, and B) applauded the fact that nobody without a clue would have had a shot in hell of finding this idol by just looking in typical idol hiding places. I really wanted nearly the full message written in code around the well lid to need to be deciphered before someone could take a stab at it. But I also recognize that someone finding the idol earlier leads to more chances to use it and better TV. So ultimately, bravo to the Survivor producers for this season's idol hiding. Heck, we still have another whole team which has yet to discover their idol.
Overthinking
Back to Val. So naturally, the best move to make at this point is to fess up to John and tell him she doesn't really have an idol. This in turn makes him need to revise his voting strategy in order to keep his word to Jeremy. Sadly, Val does no such thing. Ok, so it would be even better if she prays on John's willingness to believe her and offers to share the idol with him as an unknown alliance, later in the game, if he can cause Baylor to be voted out instead. Alas, she doesn't fess up, and she doesn't make any secret deals. She instead hopes that the boys and Baylor split their vote 3-3, allowing Val and Jaclyn to vote for Baylor and have everything work out. I know Jeff Probst loves big moves and probably appreciated what Val is trying to do here. But the plan is already partially backfiring, so why tempt fate and go all in? I think the bigger play here would have been to try to manipulate John and change the outcome.
Tribal Council:
Let me sum this up quickly, if I can. The majority weren't dumb. They split their vote 4-2 (4-Val, 2-Baylor, and who knows if Baylor knew she was the backup plan or not, but I'm guessing not). They knew that Val and Jaclyn would either vote for a guy (ensuring Val goes home) or would vote for Baylor (forcing a tie and a revote). Val & Jaclyn vote for Baylor as they planned, but the vote ends up 4-4. Our 1st tie vote of the season. 6 people go back to revote, excluding Val and Baylor. John, still fully believing Val has an idol, switches and votes for her in the revote, saying "I told you to play your idol." The revote goes down 5-1 with Val being the 2nd person voted out of the game.
So it could be that her 'idol' was her downfall. If she actually had one, but didn't play it, voting her out and removing it from play was the wisest thing for her tribe mates to do.
Going Forward:
Jaclyn is in a tough spot as the obvious odd person out. How will she try to save herself? Maybe she won't have to. In the previews for next episode, we see a huge argument involving Jeremy and John at a challenge. Everyone (instead of the 4-5 people who already know) is about to know about John Rocker and his past. And good ole type-A John isn't taking it lying down. Wednesday night will be fun.
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