In all the seasons of Survivor South Africa, at this point in the game, I have NEVER seen castaways eat so much!! In Malaysia, the first time we were able to even win rice was on Day 9. Not only have these tribes had rice since day one, there has been a chocolate cake feast, burgers, fries, corn and meat kebabs………and it’s only DAY 10!
I felt for Utara (especially helpless Marian) who lost the challenge because I know that the lack of food plays the cruelest of psychological games on your mind but the fact that they even had the option to win this much food so early in the game has got to be unprecedented!
Mark tried to comfort his team after the fast food reward challenge loss with the most annoying thing this season: The Captain’s Speech. “Pat yourselves on the back guys for not complaining”. It’s so patronizing.
I understand that this is the “theme” this season but these sports pep talks and the yoga circles every episode is so un-Survivor-like. To me, quite frankly, it feels odd.
Despite their reward challenge loss, Utara managed to get it together by escaping the curse of winning the sports legend and winning immunity. Like I said last week, Corne should have given Jonty Rhodes to Mark!! They are now 3 and 0 against Utara and the Selatan tribe members are dropping out of this game like flies. On a side note though, HOW HOT IS JONTY RHODES?? But…….I digress.
Whilst I see a change in approach from Zavion which I applaud, the problem is that Corne Krige’s position is way too powerful to keep the target off Zavion’s back.
I am not convinced that Zavion realizes that his close relationship with Corne only brightens the already large target on his back. He continues to prove to be Corne’s little muse by always being the one consulted or being the “chosen” one to march off to a dual with.
Additionally, these Selatan players have entrusted Corne with the idol. It’s a no-brainer that if there is one person on that tribe that Corne would use the idol to save, it is Zavion. (Makes next week’s apparent tribe shuffle quite intriguing).
Even Utara easily knew that Zavion was the obvious choice as an assistant for the captain’s dual. The biggest problem of all that Zavion has is that everyone knows that Corne would vote for him to win the whole shebang in the end so that just adds to the list of reasons to vote Zavion off either right before the merge or right after the merge.
One person who was clearly not able to steer the idol away from Corne was the sugarcane obsessed Philip. A few blogs ago I warned that if Philip didn’t stop focusing so intensely on his hidden sugarcane stash, he would lose sight of this game very quickly.
It is socially unacceptable to hide food from your starving (if you can call them that) tribe mates especially when you know that your tribe mates tend to vote people out for just and moral reasons i.e. Shona and Idolgate. There was an easy social reason to get rid of him. However, Philip was not going to sink in the sugarcane boat alone.
He provided excellent “intel” on Moyra to the tribe mates he left behind. Unless Moyra can dramatically benefit from the tribe shuffle or immunity next week, she is in some sweet trouble!
My top two standouts this week are Graham and Altaaf. I am becoming somewhat of a Graham groupie and I think Altaaf has huge potential to go quite far.
While, Graham has so much social swag on top of being level-headed and strong, Altaaf’s best attribute is that he doesn’t appear to be irritating anyone (unlike David). He gets along with his tribe mates, he is in a sensible alliance and he is flying at the perfect height under the radar.
I am also still on Shane and Solly watch. I originally questioned why Shane raised his hand to be Mark’s assistant for the captain’s dual (for the same reasons that I think have hurt Zavion), but my guess is that Shane was buying a little favor with Mark in an effort to try and secure Mark’s vote in the end.
Mark’s favourite member of Utara is still up for grabs me thinks and Solly and Shane are probably two top contenders. From that angle, though risky, I think Shane made a smart move! Solly on the other hand is not Mark’s loudest cheerleader.
As a result, I think his game is still unfolding and evolving because he still needs to vie for that vote! Let’s see how this all plays out.
Catch you Survivor-lovers next week. I have a feeling episode 7 is going to be a realllllllly good one!! Maybe another double elimination when the tribes are chosen? Just a guess!!
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