SURVIVOR: FANS VS FAVORITES – 3/27/13

My Harvard roommate has been on fire this season. His last season, I didn’t like him on the show, but he’s made a complete 180, and become funny. Likable even. I feel like every few months, the English language changes and words get spelled differently. How is it likable and not likeable? I swear it was likeable before. And, what’s up with publically being the correct way to spell publicly? See, even Yahoo doesn’t like “publically.” They’re giving me the red squiggly line underneath, whereas my Microsoft Outlook program doesn’t. Things that make you go hmmm, right? Anyway, back to Harvard we go. His diatribe about how calling Julia “vanilla” was doing a disservice to the flavor vanilla was classic. She’s so bland that calling her the most bland ‘flavor’ in the world isn’t even enough. Even when they show her just sitting around, you get that sense that she’s just not someone who does conversations well. And, trust me, I know those people because I’m one of them. But, I’m not THAT bland. I have a sense of humor – I can’t ever see a situation where something Julia would say would make me laugh. Not that there is anything wrong with being that way (I love being the way I am – saves me from having to have conversations with people I wouldn’t want to have conversations with anyway), but it doesn’t strike you as the type of personality that would want to go on a show like Survivor, where anyone who has ever watched knows it’s all about your social activity, and honestly think you have a chance to win! Especially when you’re a frail, little girl who already knows she won’t be winning challenges! In all seriousness, did Julia ever once have an inkling that she had a chance in Hell of winning this show?

And, come on Cochran, you should know why Phillip would flock to a girl like that. Phillip likes to talk and to talk to people who won’t challenge him. Doesn’t Julia ring true to that kind of person? She would definitely be the type who would just sit back and let Phillip say whatever he wanted and just nod along like everything was all hunky dory. Phillip thinks she’s easily manipulated, so of course he’d be drawn to her.

Let’s do a quick check on the folks over at Gota. Malcolm calls Erik an Alpha male (overstatement of the century – especially after his piss poor performance trying to stop Brandon from dumping the beans onto the sand – seriously, I think the sand is still wet from the pee that dribbled down Erik’s leg when Brandon forcefully turned around and looked at him) and wants to start the Four Alpha Fraternity with himself, Erik, Eddie, and Reynold. Whereas I disagree with Erik being an Alpha male, I do agree that the foursome alliance is a fantastic idea. He already has Corinne who he was working with earlier, and Phillip will definitely come crawling back to him once the merge comes about, and now he’s got the two strongest fans on his side, so he’s thinking he’s in the best position to win this game. Plus, he’s got the idol. But, this is the same position he was in last season, and then that final immunity challenge happened. That challenge stole the million from him, so he seems to be heading down the same path. Hopefully, he makes it to that final challenge and when they come around the tree bend, he doesn’t see another stacking challenge, where he needs to hold up anything for a long period of time. Anyone else smell a deja vu moment coming later this year? I do.

And then, of course, Reynold being the genius that he is, tells Malcolm he has the idol. Geez Reynold, can you keep that to yourself at all? I know you’re giddy about how handsome Malcolm is, but you can make him work for it a little harder! Even prostitutes would have held out longer than you. There is absolutely 0% chance of Reynold winning this game. He just doesn’t have it. He may make it to final 3, but I even doubt that.

Back over at the Bikal beach, Julia talks to Dawn about overthrowing Phillip because she feels bullied. Sorry Julia, but you’re not being bullied, you are just too timid. You’re in Survivor, where there are leaders, and there are followers. You’re not the leader – that doesn’t mean you’re being bullied, it just means you’re being told what to do, and you are going to go along with it because you need to in order to stay in the game. Sure, that may sound like the definition of being bullied, but there’s an exception for the game of Survivor. It’s not like she’s getting her pants pulled down as she walks around the beach, or called things like “worse than vanilla” or anything like that! Julia just needs to find power in the word ‘no.’ If she told Phillip no, she’d probably go home, yes, but if being bullied is what she’s worried about – at least she’d go home knowing she went down with a fight, and not being pushed out the proverbial door because she was too weak.

I’m getting off track here. She tells Dawn about getting Phillip out, which of course Dawn runs right to Phillip and discusses with him. Sealed her fate. Although, if I’m Phillip, I don’t even pay any mind to Julia doing what she did. She doesn’t even matter. You have more pressing issues on hand. You have a possible traitor in your bunch, and you should deal with that first. Julia is someone you can turn around back on your side in an instant, seeing as how she is weak and has no bearings in this game. But, someone like Corinne could seal your fate, much like you think you’re sealing Julia’s. She’s dangerous, Phillip. And just like how you talked about leaving Matt in the game, with Michael, going into the merge, leaving Michael and Corinne together would be the same mistake. That’s two votes that could easily flip against you as soon as that merge happens. And, when numbers start dwindling, two votes is a BIG deal. Be smart, Phillip. Be smart. Julia can wait – you have bigger fish to fry.