Pearl Islands started off with a whole pirate theme that I was afraid would get really old really quickly. I mean, stranding these people with just the clothes on their backs? Who cares? Well, I should know not to doubt Mark Burnett's machinations. Turns out the castaways were supremely uncomfortable, which led to shrill confrontations off the getgo.

We met all sorts of funky characters. There was Osten - the jacked muscleman who was scared of pelicans; Lil - the Boyscout leader whose emotional state went through the ringer; Johnny Fairplay - the guy you didn't love to hate, you just hated him; Rupert - the hairy powerhouse with the bruised self-image from high school; Shawn - the guy who introduced Long Island to Middle America; Burton - the self-righteous hypocrite; Christa - aka the Midnight Smorgasbord for thousands of bugs and mites; Darrah - the mortician who seems to have strayed from the set of "O Brother Where Art Thou?"; Michelle - the bespectacled casual booter; and Sandra - the eventual winner (and fish chum conspirator) of the million dollars.

The season provided us with all sorts of crazy scenarios. There was the lowly Morgan tribe, which, despite its best efforts, could not win a challenge for the life of them. Dovetailing nicely with this story was the increasingly pathetic and bizarre deterioration of Osten, whose Herculean presence was quickly undermined by menacing hermit crabs and fears of drowning. When he ultimately quit the game, Jeff Probst added some zest to the saga by brusquely telling Osten to "Go home". In a symbolic gesture, Osten's torch was laid on its side. Take that, torch!

There was some poetic justice though for the Morgan tribe. After the Drakes threw an immunity challenge, they suddenly lost all their momentum. Going into the merge, the teams were equal. That's around when Mark Burnett threw a wrench into the whole thing and introduced the "Outcasts". Everyone who had previously been voted out were brought back, ultimately resulting in Lil and Burton reassimilating into tribal life. Many viewers criticized this move, but I thought it was great. What a way to shake things up. Yeah, it sort of betrays the Outwit, Outplay, Outlast mantra of the series, but the people who complain about the integrity of the show don't seem to mind the inevitable tribal switcheroo, which seems just as meddlesome to the organic flow of survival of the fittest.