SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE
SIGN IN SEARCH MENU
SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE


Tina Makes Like A Tree And Leaves

Written by Cloud9 from the blog Tribal Talk on 01 Nov 2006
Favourite this post


I’ve quite been enjoying Survivor SA but as Survivor Panama: Exile Island’s credits rolled for the first time, I realised how much I’d missed the real Survivor. Watching Jeff Probst appear on Skull Island and talk about the twists as four boats delivered new obnoxious Americans to mock and love and hate was like greeting an old friend.

Survivor’s back, baby, and if the first episode is anything to go by, it’s going to be a corker.

As the sixteen new Survivors landed on the island, even the densest among them noticed that they were divided in four teams according to gender and age. The tribal names are these:

Younger Men – Viveros, the Spanish word for ‘New Age pretty boys’
Younger Women – Bayoneta, the Spanish word for ‘fake boobs’
Older Men – La Mina, the Spanish phrase for the ‘ashtray’
Older Women – Casaya, the Spanish word for ‘doomed’

Got that? Good, now forget it. It’s complicated trying to remember all those names and even Jeff didn’t use the names, choosing to refer to them as younger men, older women, etc.

A couple of the older women were less than pleased that they were in fact older women. I tend to agree since the youngest older woman is one year older than the oldest younger woman. Er, you know what I mean. But the Older Women they shall remain because calling their tribe the wrinkly, overweight and generally cannon fodder tribe would be too much of a mouthful

It was the second twist that really got their attention and sent shivers of anticipatory delight through my body.

Each episode, the losing tribe will send one of their members off to Exile Island. The great thing is that the Hidden Immunity Idol is sitting somewhere on the island and whoever finds it can use it at any TC up until the final three.

I love this – it provides a whole new strategic avenue that the contestants must consider. For example, if someone is in danger of getting voted out, do they stay on and try to talk their way out of danger? Or do they purposefully lose and try to get to Exile Island and risk looking for an Immunity Idol that they may not find or may already be gone?

That’s not even mentioning the way people will have to decide who to vote out taking into account whether they might secretly have immunity or not. There are plenty of juicy strategic tweaks and turns this twist adds to the game.

Immediately, Jeff got the new tribes to compete for a flint reward. Each tribe chose someone to compete in a skull-smashing challenge. Stephenie soundalike Danielle of the Young Chicks lost miserably for her tribe. Instead of sending her off to Exile Island for her loserdom, the Chicitas chose to play rock/paper/scissors and rocket scientist Misty was chosen as the first Exile.

Jeff nattered off some information about the Hidden Immunity Idol before sending the non-Exiles on their way. Misty looked gutted, perhaps sensing that the Chicitas were about to spend their boat trip bonding over her misery and laughing at her.

Jeff then turned to her and basically told her “I already gave you your clue, now get lost, sucker” and she was left all alone on Exile Island. Thanks, Jeff, you evil bastard. Misty did better than I did and realised that one of his comments about fate was probably the clue but damned if either she or I know what the hell that means.

The four tribes all got to work on their shelters and their collective personalities emerged. The Older Women got to praying and asking God for a little extra help. A booming voice did not reply that he didn’t do partisanship, sadly enough.

God’s Grannies then proved to be fairly competent in shelter-building despite the presence of Cirie who appears to have accidentally wandered in from a luxury cruise. It seems that Cirie is afraid of leaves. Good Lord, a terrifying phobia of leaves? How does she walk outside? Does she go into hibernation during autumn?

As Cirie cowered at the thought of the sinister forces that might lie hidden underneath the leaves, Tina did a bit of singing. One word, Tina: Wanda. Don’t go down that same dark path.

The Young Guys (so named the Beefcakes by Bobby) proved to be completely inept. More brawn than brains clearly but is it really surprising when the team is made up of the following members:

Aras: believes meditating and hovering his hands above his team-members’ will help in fire-building. Only if your name is Pyro.

Austin: is sad he is on an all-male tribe because his strategy is apparently to flirt with the hot chicks. Only if your name is Johnny Depp.

Bobby: thinks calling the other tribes Spice Girls, Golden Girls and The Love Boat tribe is the height of wit. Only if your name is…nothing, because those are really lame and not even Chris Rock can pull that off.

I quite like Nick though. He was rightly skeptical of Aras’ fire-making through hand-hovering and seems to have a self-deprecating attitude towards the whole thing.

The Young Chicks were just as bad mostly because they spent five thousand years choosing a location for their shelter. Courtney claimed “You know us women, always talking and ever deciding anything” as Sally interviewed that Courtney had been the biggest problem and that she’d just wanted to pick a spot and get the shelter built. I suspect Sally is the one who’s right here because Courtney is a dirty, damn hippy.

Courtney, whose pale freckly skin is about to become sunburn central, found a dead turtle on the beach and proceeded to draw symbols around it and treat it like some grand symbol. “A turtle is a symbol for Mother Earth,” she rubbished, “and Turtle Island is what America used to be called.”

To me, a turtle is a symbol of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, a place where absurdity rules, much like in Courtney’s head.

The other chicks merely smiled and nodded as they backed away slowly. You know your tribemate is going to be bad news when she’s channeling Batty Jan from Thailand on the first day. Sally again complained that Courtney might be a little off. You know, I think I’m beginning to like Sally.

The Older Guys went all Samurai on unsuspecting trees and branches as Asian music tinkled in the background in case anyone had forgotten that Bruce Karateguy is a wise, Asian master. Shane calls him Daffy Duck for reasons known only to his nicotine-deprived mind.

See, Shane, like our very own Nico, is a heavy smoker. And Shane, unlike Nico, did not have access to his cigarettes so he is on a one-way trip to Crazytown: “Why am I with theoldguys I don’t fit in with theoldguys they’re always working WHERE THE HELL ARE MY CIGARETTES?!”

He’s going to be a barrel of laughs to live with, isn’t he?

As Shifty Shane twitched, Dan and Terry were finding out they had something in common. They were both semi-Hogebooming about their jobs to other people and decided to come clean to each other. Dan was omitting the fact that he had been in space while Terry was omitting the fact that he was a former fighter pilot.

I can only assume that all the time Dan spent in space, he spent it on the dark side of the moon because the man is pale. If they’re, by some miracle, unable to make a fire they can just use Dan as a nightlight.

“There’s a similarity between going to space and going to a deserted island,” Dan told us. How so? Are astronauts also made up of not-very-smart Americans who can barely start a fire? Do they use slings to catch passing space-fish? Do they wear colourful buffs over their helmets?

Meanwhile on Exile Island, Misty ate worms. Ewww. At least we know she’s not squeamish. Earthworms must be good brain food because she outlined a benefit to being on EI even if she didn’t find the island: making it seem like she had found the island to other people could be just as good.

That’s not a bad strategy. You’d have to be quite subtle about it though because people would see right through obvious crowing so I’m not sure if Misty can pull it off.

At the Immunity Challenge, she rejoined the Young Chicks to compete for three Immunity Shrunken Heads. They won the challenge by a fair margin. They were followed by the Older Guys while the other two tribes struggled.

Team Beefcake apparently forgot to row (and must’ve started beating each other with the oars in frustration if their bloody wounds were anything to go by) but managed to beat the Older Women because Melinda decided to stare into space instead of participating in the challenge.

With this dreadful performance, you’d think Melinda would be the one on the chopping block or maybe Cirie of the leafophobia. No, instead it was Tina, the one who did most of the work around camp.

Why? Because she sat by herself on the beach (to mourn her late son, you HEARTLESS WITCHES!) and because she was loud (OK, no arguing there). Even her finding them a fish to eat could not change their minds.

The Tribal Council set is super cool this season and is set in a cave with stalactites and everything. I think it might take place inside the skull but I’m not sure. At TC, Jeff oh so subtly pointed out the idiocy of voting out Tina.

Jeff: So Tina started the fire, found the water and got you a fish dinner. Just try and *bleep!* she’s not your most useful member.
Cirie: Hey, just because she’s provided us with food, water and fire while we lazed around plotting her demise does not make her the most useful member. We could do all that stuff on our own. And soon we will, MUAHAHAHA!
Tina: Oh man, I’m in trouble, aren’t I?

So Tina was voted off by everyone else and to be honest, I’m glad. That scene with her writing her son’s name on the beach made me think it was too soon after his death for her to be doing this. Better to let her grieve in private instead of putting her through an emotional ringer like Survivor.

Despite Cirie’s engineering of the incredibly dumb decision, I actually kinda like her. She may not have any clue when it comes to the outdoors aspect of the show but she’s certainly grasped onto the strategic aspect right away since it would’ve been her voted out otherwise. Plus she’s got a sense of humour – that comment about people like her staying on the couches gave me a good giggle.

I don’t think Tina’s leaving will matter very much anyway. Next week is already another twist and I think it’s going to be a tribal mix-up. They did have Cirie saying something about Shane and how can she talk about him in any detail if she doesn’t live with him?



Comments


Only TVSA members can reply to this thread. Click here to login or register.






LATEST ARTICLES

"Come Back To Me!" - a mother's plea for her kidnapped son on Telemundo

This new series was produced at Telemundo Center and explores what can happen with love when you have no expectations.


New! Come Back To Me Teasers - April 2024

Hearts collide on Telemundo when Nuria's young son gets kidnapped.


My Brother's Keeper Teasers - April 2024

Series finale! Fakazile comes guns blazing for the Mshengu.


Champions Teasers - April 2024

Family ties get strained as Lebo's star rises, leaving his roots in the shadow of his success.


Anupama Teasers - April 2024

Anupama urges Ankush to have a chat with Romil after catching him watching an adult movie.


Titli Teasers - April 2024

The celebrations commence grandly, yet Titli begins to have doubts about the marriage.


New on TV today: Friday 29 March 2024

There's music and lights in SuperCulture on Channel O and the film Wallflower airs on Fuse TV.


Game of Lies Teasers - April 2024

Series finale! The rescue attempt gets underway before a final reckoning.


Gqeberha: The Empire 2 Teasers - April 2024

The Mxenge Hotel turns into a whodunnit. A gunshot. Murder. In which room and by who?


The Wife 3 Teasers - April 2024

Naledi’s sex tape sees the spotlight again and catches her in the headlights.

LATEST SITE ACTIVITY


More activity at TVSA Central



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS




Not Your Typical Bios:


Survivor Cook Islands

More Survivor Goodness:


×
×

You browser doesn't have Flash, Silverlight, Gears, BrowserPlus or HTML5 support.