Pearl Islands Episode 7: What the… Part I
We have reached a two episode arc in Survivor that some have called the most unfair twist the show has ever done. Now the Outcasts twist may seem crazy to Survivor only fans but as someone who grew up on both this show and Big Brother, it seemed like a run-of-the-mill returning player twist that Big Brother liked to use every now and then. Besides, no matter how you feel about it, the Outcasts did end up making the season so much better by returning to the game.
The episode starts with the fallback from the previous episode’s vote. Rupert received two votes against him and you might say he’s a little incensed. Back at camp, he is pacing around like an actual madman and is yelling at the top of his lungs. Some choice examples of his yelling are “who the hell voted for me?” and “what the fuck was that shit tonight?”
Rupert backs Jon into a corner and yells/asks him who voted for him. I truly believe that in this precise moment, Jonny Fairplay is actually scared stupid. He admits to Rupert that he voted for him because he was doing it for the tribe. Rupert really gets up in Jon’s face and is pretty intimidating, yelling at Jon to look at him and really looking like he might assault him. I’ve joked about people resisting the urge to punch someone throughout this season but in this moment, it feels pretty real. Rupert in fact confirms this in a confessional, “I was ready to kill Jon. Literally. Grab that little scrawny ass by the neck and pop his head off like a chicken”.
Let’s stop and think for a second that this is the man who everyone was lauding as a hero. In fact he becomes a literal hero some time down the road. A man who is so short-tempered and egotistical that he can’t handle getting two votes thrown at him in a game where the point is to vote people out. Rupert sees himself as so important that he can’t fathom his tribe not wanting him around and when he gets votes against him, it’s seen as a personal slight. “I’m so good for this tribe that these votes must be because someone doesn’t like me personally”, that is the only way Rupert rationalizes votes against him. Especially this early in the game.
Also worth noting that Rupert pulls a Heidi when he explains that “I knew when I saw two Ruperts in the vote that Trish and Jon had voted for me”.
Eventually, Jon is able to explain away his vote by pretending that he misheard something Rupert had said. His line was essentially that Rupert had said he would be the only player who could play both tribes and get away with it. Funnily enough, Rupert’s argument against that is “who the hell would even have the fucking arrogance to say that?” which of course, you would Rupert. In fact you have said that in the past.
Thanks to his guile, Jonny Fairplay is able to avoid a beating at the hands of an angry caveman. That said, Rupert leaves this exchange never trusting Jon again because as he says, “I don’t believe a damn word he says”. Which would be smart of you to keep doing Rupert.
At Morgan, they are under some heavy rain. Savage puts on his professorial hat and explains to the audience that he believes there is a “direct correlation between the lack of protein in our bodies and energy”. No shit Savage. This is just another way to cram in some “Rupert is magical, I wish he were on our tribe feeding us” footage for production to jerk off to.
It’s during this scene that we start setting the table for Osten’s eventual quit. He talks about his body starting to shut down. We start getting usage of the word “temple” in reference to OT’s muscular physique. He hasn’t been sleeping and his tribe can see that he has mentally checked out.
During the scene, Ryno namedrops Skinny Ryan by trying to imagine if he were still around. The tribe jokes that he would have perished. Savage adds Lill into the mix. There isn’t a need necessarily to add in this scene but it’s a great decision. This is some brilliant foreshadowing by the editors who know we are about to see both of them in about 15 minutes.
We switch back to Morgan and Fairplay has already figured out a way to get back into the tribe’s good graces. They are getting ready for a challenge and decide to make coconut before leaving. Everybody wants coconut popcorn, which is when the coconut is basically charred, except Shawn who thinks they don’t have enough time to do it right.
Seeing an opportunity, Jon picks a fight with Shawn over this disagreement. In fact he goes so far as to trying to sucker Shawn into punching him. It’s easy to see that Fairplay is a wrestling fan because he has all the makings of a weak, adversarial heel. It made total sense that he made a bit of a splash in the wrestling world coming out of Survivor because he was basically made for it.
For her part, Sandra is happy to see Shawn and Jon get into a fight because it takes the attention away from her. As she puts it, “as long as it ain’t me, I’m happy”. From very early on Sandra knew what she was doing and her mantra can be heard all over the place throughout Pearl Islands. Just more evidence that her win was not by accident.
Both tribes arrive at the challenge and this is where the big twist is revealed to the two sides. You can tell that the players are completely taken aback by this and it takes the wind right out of their sales. Th Outcasts on the other hand all look motivated and hungry for revenge. Especially Burton, who is always a threat in challenges, and Skinny Ryan for his menacing buff.
The only outcast not looking especially fired up is Lill because the only expression Lill knows how to do is a sour face.
Basically, the two tribes need to beat the Outcasts in order to stop anybody from coming back in. If one tribe loses, one player comes back. If both lose, two players come back. Of course, the Outcasts were always going to win this challenge. Production claims to have kept them fed to a minimal amount and that they lived under game circumstances but even if that were true, the ability to relax from not having to worry about strategy already gave them a huge advantage. That combined with the need for revenge for being booted off their respective tribes was enough to power them to a convincing win. Also Burton is an absolute monster in this challenge and really comes through for the Outcasts.
Returning from the challenge, Savage is unimpressed by the twist. This comes as no surprise to anybody. OT also confirms to his tribe that he wants to be voted out. His temple is shutting down and no worshippers are welcome. The rest of his tribe is finally over Osten’s complaining and are basically accepting of his request. It’s really like Osten doesn’t realize he isn’t the only one living under dire circumstances and that the constant complaining propbably annoys his teammates.
Back at Drake, we get another example of Sandra’s prescience when Christa asks her who she thinks will be back. Sandra predicts Burton and Lill which is exactly what is going to be happening. She may have been hanging in the background but Sandra always kept her fingers on the pulse of the game. I have never been a massive Sandra fan but I can absolutely appreciate her masterful understanding of how Survivor works socially.
The vote is going to come down between Shawn and Fairplay. To decide how this is going to go down, Drake decides to have an unofficial tribal council before the real tribal council. Rupert acts as the worst Jeff Probst ever which probably shouldn’t be used in a reel for his audition tape as a future game show host. Basically Fairplay tells the tribe that Shawn is going to flip on Drake as soon as the merge hits and with the tribes probably going into with even numbers, they can’t afford to keep Shawn around. He also tells them that he works harder around camp than Shawn which is true and smartly appeals to Rupert’s work ethic. Shawn justinsists he is loyal to Drake.
Drake’s tribal council is fairly standard. Rupert puts on his usual production of drama and emotion and Fairplay talks his way out of being voted out. This is by far the most vulnerable he has been so far in the game but Drake lets him off the hook. This is a mistake for everybody but Sandra and even will complicate Sandra’s road to the end by a fair amount.
Even though he claims to have been loyal, Shawn confirms in his final words that he was planning on flopping over to Morgan at the merge. Shawn is kind of a waste of space in a season with a lot of great characters so I am happy to see him go fairly early to focus on the actual entertaining players left around.
Now it’s time for the roast of Osten Taylor starring Jeff Probst as roastmaster. Savage tells Jeff that Osten has asked to be voted off and that the tribe will honor his request. They could have just voted and be done with it but this is the first ever official quit and Jeff just isn’t about to let Osten walk away this easily, he starts in: “you had enough Osten?”
OT’s reply is that his body is done. Now to be fair to Osten, yes he is a complainer and it gets annoying but he has been living multiple weeks out in the wild without any clothing but his underwear. Yes, I realize he made that decision to sell his clothes but he didn’t know what was coming ahead of him and he was trying to help his tribe. It’s a dumb decision but at least it was done with selflessness in mind.
Probst then asks Savage “how much of this experience is finding out what you’re made of?” which is basically Jeff’s way of calling Osten a pussy without saying it. Savage agrees with the path the question is leading him on. He says that a lot of Survivor is about the mental aspect and that some people are just weaker mentally.
Before he lets Osten walk away, he makes sure to pry out as many negative things about Osten as possible. He probes everyone for their thoughts on the situation and everyone basically says they wouldn’t quit. Of the Morgan tribe, Savage is definitely the harshest and in a way it’s understandable. He has acted as leader since the beginning and has been trying to keep OT in the game and it’s failed. He’s pissed. In a way it’s also his fault when he could have made the call to vote Osten out way earlier and kept actual useful teammates around. It’s like Frankenstein’s monster except in this version instead of losing control of it, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster just kind of dies out on him.
For the first time ever, there is no vote. Jeff checks with everybody and once it is confirmed that Osten is going, Jeff snuffs his torch. Instead of the usual, “the tribe has spoken”, Jeff hits OT with “Osten, per your wishes, go home” and drops the torch on the ground. This is the Survivor equivalent to a mic drop after a particularly one-sided rap battle.
Jeff ends tribal as usual with a closing remark. This time it’s “with all due respect to Osten, people work too damn hard to get in this game and fight to stay alive. If he wants to lay his torch down, so it shall be. Who knows. Maybe the is the best thing happen to the Morgan tribe. All I know is you will head back to camp. Soon after, a new tribe member will arrive and I can promise you this, that person wants to be in this game. Grab your torches. Head on back. Good night.” Which essentially boils down to “With all due respect Osten, fuck Osten. Grab your torches. Head on back.Good night”.
Osten gets pretty raw treatment for just not being able to survive. He doesn’t even get final words. Instead the shot is of Morgan walking out of tribal council and the episode ends with a close up of Osten’s torch on the ground. The direction the show went in is clear. It’s “if you go on the show and quit, we will make you look like a bitch”. Osten just had to be the first one to go through it and thus, was made into an example. There are some far more egregious quitters down the line who get off much easier than Osten does in Pearl Islands. I’ve always appreciated Osten for the storyline he does have and his ability to give some pretty good soundbites during his time on the show.
The episode ends on a cliff hanger with the Outcasts coming in to vote two people back into the game. It’s such a tease but was a great way back then to keep us coming back. Though anybody not coming back for a Pearl Islands episode is a crazy person.
MVP of the episode: I will give it to Osten. He doesn’t get any credit from anybody for basically being presented as a bitch-ass quitter but he really is the key to part 1 of a two part episode. His quit basically signifies the end of the pre-merge and sets the tone for the post-merge.
Rupert quote of the episode: “Jonny Fairplay is Jonny Pain-in-the-ass now to me”.
Fairplay voting confessional for Shawn: Fuck you!
Short and sweet. No comment on this one.
Click here to read the rest of the Survivor Deja Vu series.
