Tony’s Rant

Shane is enjoying his extended stay on the island at Melinda’s expense, and possibly Cirie’s expense if they loose tonight. After all, he laid his cards out last time when he told them “I don’t care which one of you goes tonight, because whichever one of you doesn’t go tonight is going next” - and that is the kind of elitist arrogance that I simply hate seeing in this game, especially when the one saying it has told everyone that they want to go home. Statements like this boils down to telling those targeted to leave that they have no inherent worth to the team other than fodder, and that excludes any skills that the person may have for the sake of elitism.

At least they were a lot more welcoming of Bruce than the attitude they showed toward Melinda, but now I wonder how long Bruce’s experience and knowledge (as a teacher and backpacker) will carry him before they find him tiresome and overbearing, which he did come off a bit strong.

Reward challenge is for necessities - cans for water, tarps, blankets, lanterns, etc. The challenge is that the team is place on a balance beam out in the water, and another team member uses an over sized slingshot to shoot balls at the team, which they have to catch. They can go into the water, but they have to come up with the ball. La Mina takes an early lead, which Casaya quickly catches up, and takes over the lead at 4 - 3. Lamina catches the next and Casaya misses, making it a tie again at 4 - 4. Shane misses the last shot, giving Lamina the win, and a member of Casaya will be going to Exile Island. The stinger is, La Mina gets to choose who will be going to the island. Since Casaya came to the challenge talking about how Bruce changed their outlook, of course La Mina chose Bruce to be the one who would be going, so it’s back to Exile Island (and more time to look for the idol!) for Bruce.

Shane seems to be at the verge of sanity - he found a rock that he’s calling “Shane’s thinking seat”, and when someone jokingly asked why it was his, he started screaming about it. Shane seems very much like he is bi-polar…

One thing I notice is that too many people play this game poorly. They are thinking about the mid-game too soon and playing the mid-game while they should be playing their start game. Much like chess, this game requires three distinct strategies, a start game, mid-game, and endgame. The merge is mid-game and the strategy changes at this time. Why don’t they get this?

Immunity challenge is a search and fight. They have to search for a bag, and then fight to get that bag, in t heir hands, and any part of their body over the line. The challenge is broken up to a certain number of players from each team each round. Casaya takes the first point, then La Mina takes the next two points, and they are playing to three points. I’ve seen wrestling that are less aggressive than this! Casaya takes the next point, tying it up. Now it is down to this last point to win the game. People are doing more wrestling than searching for the bag. During the wrestling, the bag was handed off to Ruth Marie for La Mina, she makes a dash for the line, but at the last minute, she is brought down, because she cut wrong, and the bag was stolen by Bobby, who carries the bag the few steps to their line without contest to take Casaya for the win, so La Mina will be going to tribal council for the first time.

Will it be Ruth Marie, who lost the game today, or will it be Sally, who lost the spear? Or will it be Misty, who has been to the island and lying to her tribe? The vote, Ruth Marie, Misty, Ruth Marie, Misty, Misty, and the third person voted out of Survivor: Exile Island, Misty - Nice blindside there - She was completely not expecting this.

The question now is, will the tribe that can’t catch fish with fishing gear, or will the tribe that is exploding from within make it through to the merge? The sad part… it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be successful at this game, but there is one there, and he doesn’t have a clue…

Tony