10 other passing thoughts

A simpler Survivor time

It was both jarring and freeing to have no immunity idols at all — a simpler, purer game. It seemed like the castaways were given lots more food and goods and it was less of a survival effort. There was a ton more food available in rewards too. Even just the production value was a bit outdated at times. We really missed out on seeing the Amazon in high definition.

Embarrassing culture and religion misunderstandings

Episode 2 “Storms” felt like a relic from another era. The women won immunity but Joanna didn’t want the immunity idol in camp “because of the 10 Commandments.” I’m a Christian, but that’s just absurd and silly.

Then the women found a granola bar and freaked out, wondering who had smuggled it. No one would even touch the bar and the women agreed to burn it in the fire, which was again absurd and over the top. Really hard to imagine either of these things happening 15 years later. So that’s something, I guess.

The woman with a hearing impairment

Survivor didn’t really think this one through. Christy struggled out of the gate. At night she couldn’t read lips and missed key conversations. Between that and the “pretty girls,” she felt on the outs immediately and latched onto that and made herself the outsider, whining about being left out around camp. Christy eventually loosened up and was able to fit in, really surprising me how long she lasted. I’m curious how the jury would’ve responded if she’d made the finals — as the goat dragged to the end or a winner who overcame so much. We’ll never know.

A fun tribe swap twist

The youngest, Dave and Jenna, went on a date night (basically a preview of The Bachelor overnights) and were surprised to have to pick tribes the next morning. I liked the twist, especially after both had revealed so much about their tribemates. Survivor does a great job putting random spotlights on people and forcing uncomfortable decisions with repercussions. Not sure if this was an advantage or disadvantage for Dave and Jenna.

A dumb family reward twist

The family reward gets me every time, but I hate when the winner has to choose who gets to celebrate with a loved one, and this one was the worst. Matthew won and Probst pulled the whole “Tis better to give than to receive” thing and gave him the opportunity to give up his loved one visit to give the other five theirs. Ridiculous. OBVIOUSLY he has to agree to give up his visit. It was a non-decision, and the good will he received for his “generosity” was non-good-will too. Stop this, Survivor.

A hilarious meat-centric immunity challenge

The episode 6 “More Than Meats the Eye” challenge was shameless and hilarious. The two desegregated tribes had their hands tied and had to use their mouths to tear meat off a hanging carcass to gather the most weight. Plenty of awkward guy-girl youth-group-game situations to go around.

Roger’s embarrassing arrogance

Old man Roger’s arrogance was off the charts. It made him unlikable, and it peaked at the merge when the men reunited and Roger blindly assumed the men were all together and he was their leader. At the immunity challenge, Deena and Christy were the final two and ended up doing rock-paper-scissors for the win — even though they were the two obvious targets if the women really were getting voted out. The fact that Roger couldn’t see their confidence and assumed they were too stupid to know any better was the height of arrogance, and he got the eviction he deserved that night.

Jenna gets babied

Credit to Jenna for flirting her way along in the game — that’s a real strategy and she and Heidi were great using sexuality to advance their position — and I didn’t buy the complaints at the finale about her being babied or entitled. It takes two to play that game.

The one exception was the auction. Jenna didn’t have enough money to bid for the last item, a letter from her family, and broke down in tears, unable to hear from her sick mother back home. That’s crushing. But then, with the auction over, Jeff felt bad and offered up a second letter for auction and the castaways capitulated and let Jenna win it. That was sweet of them but unfair. They all missed out on their own letters, and Christy overpaid for hers and got no food. Even Jeff fell prey to Jenna on this one.

Deena played a great game

Obviously Jenna and Rob played a great game, but I thought Deena also did a really good job. Those were the three most interesting players at Survivor: The Amazon and all of them played with good strategy and people skills. I’m surprised Deena was never brought back for an all-star season.

Great balls of fire!

In episode 13 “The Amazon Heats Up,” the tribe left for the reward challenge and returned to find their entire camp burned to the ground. Devastating. I can’t imagine being out there almost a full month with so little, only to see even that little all be taken away. It seemed like Survivor took pity on them and gave them some clothing and food after the fire. They never really explicitly said anything more, and though that seems like a cheat, it helped them all equally and I was ok with that. This is meant to be a communication game, not a test to see who can literally survive physically in the rain forest.