Richie Glanzer will be writing a blog all season long for Rob Has a Website as we continue to cover “Survivor: One World” from every conceivable angle. Click Here to Read more About Rich
“Well, the way Survivor always works, is that the strong stay initially because they benefit the tribe, and the weak go. So I’m aligned with Big Mike, Jay Bird and Bill. It’s an easy alliance; we’re the young fit guys. It’s the dominant alliance clearly, so I’m sitting pretty as far as I’m concerned.” – Matt from Episode 1
Colton calls them “The Misfits”, but I prefer “Lambda Lambda Lambda”. Survivor turned into “Revenge of the Nerds” as the Misfits and Colton not only eliminated Matt but probably gave him a wedgie on the way out. I’m hoping that’s the secret scene on CBS.com.
For those that are too young…the fraternity Lambda Lambda Lambda pulled off the greatest upset since the Miracle on Ice four years earlier and defeated the jocks of the Alpha Beta fraternity in the cinema classic, Revenge of the Nerds, circa 1984.
Ted McGinley played evil jock Stan Gable and the yet-to-be great Anthony Edwards played our hero Gilbert Lowell. I bring this up because at the beginning of the movie, Stan thought he owned Gilbert, just like Matt thought he owned Colton. By the end of the movie, it was Edwards who proved victorious and later went on to star in Top Gun and ER. McGinley meanwhile went on to ruin such great TV shows as Happy Days and Married with Children and according to IMDB.com is the “patron saint of the website Jump the Shark, which is a phrase describing an event in a TV show that marks the start of the show’s decline.”
For the past two weeks, I’ve given Colton my prestigious (if I keep calling it prestigious, I’m hoping others will start believing it) hero award and been given a lot of grief for it on the comment section. Many people thought Colton was a clown, had no game play and would quickly be eliminated. My question to these detractors – what more do you want him to do?
He’s created an alliance of five plus has Jay in his back pocket if he needs him. He has befriended many if not all of the girls and even if they got annoyed with him in the past, they will still need his vote to stay in the game in the future. And oh, b-t-dubs, he has a not-so-hidden Immunity Idol. Outside of an epic blindside, he’s almost guaranteed to make it to the merge and when he gets there, he won’t be considered a physical threat, so there is a chance he might not be an early target. Colt’s got momentum and he knows it, as he turned Matt from Mr. Muscles, to Mr. Irrelevant. As Colton said, “You pissed off the wrong queen.”
But there is some bad news for Colton. While Matt may have pissed off the wrong queen, Colton hasn’t impressed the current Queen…Survivor South Pacific champion Sophie Clarke.
When I interviewed Sophie, I told her I thought Colton was playing a very good game she said, “I think Colton is power hungry and is trying to use everyone like a puppet. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the tact nor intelligence to pull this off except maybe with Tarzan.”
While I agree with much of this, I think Sophie is overrating tact and underestimating Colton’s intelligence. We are way past the getting-voted-out-just-because-you’re-annoying stage. Right now, its all about numbers and Colton has that in spades. While I feel Colton has control of the game, Sophie disagrees, “Colton is the puppet. He is brainless and not self aware. His ego is huge. He thinks he is doing all the moving and shaking but the man holding the strings is Troyzan. He, along with Jonas, seem to recognize Colton’s insanity but are able to control it and him to execute their plans. This week we saw Colton calling Bill “ghetto trash” and insisting on his expulsion like a child. However, it wasn’t Bill who went home – it was Matt. Troyzan and Jonas got their way.”
While I also noticed Colton didn’t get his way, I think there are two factors that Sophie may not have considered:
1) Editing – After Colton called Bill, “Ghetto Trash” Matt spoke at (not with) Troyzan. Troyzan relayed that conversation to Colton and Colton may have changed his mind. We just don’t know.
2) Losing the Battle to Win the War – I captain a co-ed hockey team in New York City and sometimes my teammates will want me to coach or captain a certain way. Even though I think I know what they want is wrong and what I want is right, sometimes I give a little now to gain a lot in the future. By giving Jonas what he wants, it may be Colton’s way next time because really, What is the difference between Bill and Matt? Neither of the two are in Colton’s alliance and neither will ever be. So both have to go in Colton’s mind.
While some of the Frat Pack has to go, for this first time this season the girls get to stay. Sabrina was the star as she took a strangle hold of the leader position by beating Matt head-to-head in the Reward Challenge and then overcoming a huge deficit to beat Bill in solving the puzzle in the more important Immunity Challenge. Is it deserving of my prestigious Hero Award? Spoiler alert… No.
While I appreciated the girl’s toughness by braving it out in the rainstorm, Sophie didn’t. “I really sympathized with them out there in the rain/cold and am amazed they lasted the whole night without begging the men for help,” Sophie said. “I don’t like, however, how the women were reluctant to ask the other tribe for fire or shelter because they didn’t want to give into the ‘weaker sex’ stereotype. I think in trying to avoid this stereotype, they only legitimized and reinforced it. The men were dry and warm that night not because of their sex, but because they won a challenge and a tarp.”
She adds, “One of the best strategies in Survivor is to make your opponents feel powerful and in control. Instead of trying to one up the men, the women should be consciously giving into the ‘weak woman’ stereotype and manipulating the men’s chauvinism to get what they want – fire, a warm place to sleep, and maybe even an alliance.”
She then says, the women should take a page out of her playbook and even takes one more shot at Coach. “In my season, I was self aware and confident enough to know that if I built up the egos of the men around me, I could manipulate the votes and direction of the game from the background. The Salani women should be looking at the men’s tribe as I did Coach, as a bunch of little girls.”
Awards time.
Richie’s Hero:
Myself, for getting the current Survivor champion to contribute to my blog! OK, OK, I’ll give it to someone other than me or Colton. And that someone is Jay.
While I laud Colton’s game, I envy Jay’s position. Jay walked into the Misfit/Colton pow-wow and said, “Everybody’s out chatting, I figure I’d see what everybody’s chatting about. And it got quiet when I walked up so I can only assume…” Colton immediately told him, “Well we’re not voting you out so don’t worry.” And later said, “You just backed the wrong horse.”
But there’s plenty of time to make your own horse, as Bill and Mike are likely the two next to go. When the tribe switch happens, Matt’s theory of the strong never getting voted out early will actually come into play, and Jay’s tribe will probably value his athleticism. Jay also has some game play in him, as he was the one Frat Boy who warned the others they are putting a target on their backs. I see Jay making it to the merge with a good shot at winning this game. He’d be wise to align himself with Kat and Tarzan if possible.
Richie’s Heel:
Jeff Probst. Did Jeff really say this was the first blindside of the season? I know Survivor loves blindsides but aren’t blindsides when the person doesn’t have any clue he’s being voted out? As bad a game as Matt played, he realized it could very well be him. I don’t think he would have tried to hard to get Troyzan on his side, had Matt felt he was safe. And after listening to Rob’s podcast, Matt said, “It became pretty obvious to me that those guys (Colton and the Misfit alliance) were pretty gallivanted. I was frustrated because it was probably the end for me and I knew I couldn’t do anything more about it. I was pissed.”
As was I when Probst said it was a blindside. What, you thought you were safe from my heel Jeff? You’re not. None of you are!
Richie’s Thoughts:
I have a really specific prediction that, if it’s right, I will pour Gatorade over my head. Tarzan will come in fourth. I think the three finalists won’t want to face him because he is too nice and I think he has zero game and won’t see it coming. Sorta like the Mute Cowboy from last year. Not sure if he had a name or not.
I hate the men vs. women season. I like real physical challenges that involve wrestling, fighting, scratching, clawing. Sorry but the memory challenges just don’t cut it.
Leaving out all the players that either had immunity and lost, or gave away immunity, Matt may have been the worst player ever to play Survivor. He was just so unaware, which is why it was so surprising to hear such a fun, and seemingly great and smart person on the podcast and I’m not talking about Rob (the compliments are bi-weekly, so I get a week off). Matt knew exactly why he lost and saw Colton for what he is, an Alpha Male. Matt will never get to play again, but if he did, I’d pick him to go very far.
When I asked Sophie who will win she said this, “Kim was my early pick and I am sticking with it. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders, is strong in challenges, and is one of the rare players not to be in this 5th grade playground petty war of the genders. Jonas, Leif, and Troyzan are growing on me as well.” I’m going with Jay.
Love me or hate me, feel free to email me and let me know what I can do better. My email is RichieGlanzer [at] gmail [dot] com and I promise to respond to every email I get. Or you can do the Twitterthingee and tweet me at @RichieHero7.
