Sometimes, even the best laid plans have a habit of blowing up your face. A lot of fans of Survivor: Vanuatu were almost begging for that to happen with Ami. It's not that her plan is particularly horrible or unfair in itself. Even Ami's biggest critics have to admit that she has taken a simple concept, in this case an all-woman alliance, and taken it farther than anybody could have imagined. As her plan continued in it's successes as the game wore on, Ami quickly went from that hot chick with the huge boobs to the arrogant leader of an annoying band of bitches. After seeing the rest of the men picked off one by one, Chris was going to need either immunity or a bunch of luck to stick around in the game.
Chris started the episode with a slightly different strategy than the last time he left tribal council. Before, he had tried to get the women to trust him by telling them that he voted for Sarge. After Chad was sent home, Chris tried a sort of scorched earth campaign, and decided he would shake things up as much as possible. He immediately began to talk about the plan to get rid of Eliza, and how Ami would be next. He implicated Scout and Twila as the masterminds behind plot, and although Chris believed that he would be causing a lot of dissent, Leann noticed that everything that Chris was saying was obviously for his own benefit.
Still, with the new information about a possible break from the original alliance, there had to be some damage control, an activity in which Ami has excelled all season. She had to do it the previous week when she heard people wanted to take out Eliza. Leann, who has been Ami's right hand all year long and has benefitted from having no pressure on her for her individual performances, started talking to Twila and described her as a "panic player". If you look at it from Leann's perspective, the description fits, as Twila has kind of run around and entertained ideas of all sorts of alliances, but sort of returns to the women at the end, seemingly in fear of the alternative. But if you look at it from Twila's perspective, she has been very pragmatic. I haven't given her enough credit for using her brains in the game, but I think she has sensed for awhile that she was going to have to change some things up.
The reward challenge was a memory test. The tribe members would answer questions about other challenges to gain points. The person with the most points at the end of the game was set to receive a one hour online chat with a family member, thanks to the satellite and PowerBook they had set up on the island for them. Since Jeff isn't the cold-hearted bastard that I am, he even allowed all of the remaining contestants have a sample little conversation with their loved one. Everybody was crying, but Twila could barely contain her emotions. She asked that somebody help her with the typing, because she didn't know how. On cue, Jeff pulled out a video camera, and Twila was the first to have a one minute video conference with her son. Eliza's mom, Scout's partner, Ami's girlfriend(who didn't have implants), LeAnn's best friend, Julie's best friend, and Chris's fiancée all had a nice little chat. And damn, for being on a remote location, the video was quite good. It was almost like they were on the island with them. It turned out that the loved one's were on the island with them. Eliza answered the most questions correctly, but when Jeff was set to announce that she won the video conference, he revealed that they had set up a studio for all of the sample video conferences and that studio was, indeed, on the same island as they were. Eliza's didn't just get to meet with her mom, Susan, for an hour, she got to take her mom home to the Alinta camp and spend the evening with her. Our generous host was kind enough to let all of the losers get a little bit of face to face time with their loved one before they were shipped off the island.
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Comments (5)
well, if there's anything we've learned about 'survivor' over the past few years, it's that whomever claims to feel safe or 'in control of the game' will be the next person to go home. the big irony here is that leann would not likely have been targeted had she stuck to the original plan to oust chris.
ah, scout! first she was missing twila in 'places [she] can't talk about,' and now she's getting the hots for eliza's mom! i'm amazed she didn't pull a rupert and engage in prolonged tonsil hockey with her lovely partner. maybe probst should offer up his 'hustler' magazine collection in the next reward challenge to help scout suppress her urges.
1 of 5 | Posted by jack | Posted on November 29, 2004 7:04 AM
Excellent upset! I loved the smug look on Eliza's face when she stared at Ami as the last vote was read. And Leann's last interview... The problem going forward is Ami's excellence in Immunity Challenges. She'll be a hard one to knock down.
2 of 5 | Posted by Lady J | Posted on November 29, 2004 9:12 AM
That tribal council was a beautiful site.
But I've got a question for ya'll. Again with my cynical nature. All the straight couples, even the friends and family gave one another kisses. But both Scout and Amy only were shown hugging their partners. Do you think they were told they couldn't? Or the kisses were edited out? Or did I just miss it? It was so stunningly obvious to me after seeing Scout in such tears when talking to her partner on the 'satelite' call, then seeing her in person and not kissing. Such a shame.
3 of 5 | Posted by PDX hobbit | Posted on November 29, 2004 11:39 PM
PDX hobbit,
THat is a good question. I went back and checked the Tivo, and the only kisses they showed where Twila and her son, Chris and his fiancée, and Eliza and her mom. If you take a look at the video it seems that they cut away just as Leann, Scout, and Ami were about to plant one on their loved one's lips. After the SuperBowl, you know Viacom is very careful about this sort of stuff. Count me in as a supporter of your conspiracy theory.
4 of 5 | Posted by J-Unit | Posted on November 30, 2004 9:07 AM
I'll support your theory if they showed Julie kissing her "best friend". I didn't think Leanne was gay anyway. I think people are too crazy about conspiracies. Do you want to see Scout kissing anyone? Yuck. Old people kissing is disgusting...
5 of 5 | Posted by smithie | Posted on December 1, 2004 5:00 PM