Survivor: San Juan del Sur — Late Bloomers

A very slow season is starting to pick up its pace.

(Warning: Spoilers Ahead)

After seeing that tribal council, I’m convinced that this season of Survivor is a late bloomer. It feels like all the crap was crammed in during the first half of the season and the game just started after the merge. This can be attributed to the fact that one tribe dominated the other in challenges pre-merge thus giving those days less dynamics. Even after a tribe swap, no big moves were being made and at that point people were just making moves for a more distant resolution.

You can’t blame players of Survivor nowadays if they want to play the long game. It is a proven winning strategy. Not everyone can be like last season’s winner, Tony Vlachos, who somehow managed having a decent long-term strategy and an edgy day-to-day paranoia where he’s ready to make a big move every tribal council (of course with the help of some Immunity Idols including the Special Idol). As fun as it was watching Tony’s gameplay, not everyone can be like that.

This season we have players who know how to play the game but would hold their cards too close to their chests. However, we’re already post-merge and these cards will have to be laid down one way or another. Last week, we saw the first card dealt, with Jon and Jaclyn switching sides to vote Josh off instead of Jeremy. Usually, that delineates one alliance from the other, followed by the smaller alliance being picked off one by one in the coming days, but we’re treated to seeing another big move this week by Jon and Jaclyn once more. After Josh’s elimination, Jeremy could have easily had control. He was the head of the other snake. Where he faltered was that he didn't trust his gut. All indicators point to Jon already having the idol but chose to give Jon the benefit of the doubt. He gave his reward away for the kid, why shouldn't they should be solid right now?

This is where the late bloomers come in, primarily in Jon and Jaclyn. I've already been raving about this couple slowly becoming more powerful as the days go by in my previous reviews of the show. They know they’re a solid two but the edge they have over the others is that they know how to follow their gut, they know what to do with their cards (unlike Wes and Keith), and they have an idol (unlike Missy and Baylor). Jeremy’s elimination was set in motion by the fact that Jon knew that Jeremy was going to ask questions after coming back from exile. Jon just made a move on Jeremy before the fireman could make a move on him. This kind of attitude is what makes winners in this game. Mix this with Reed, another late bloomer whose game was activated by the voting off of his boyfriend, and his strategy of leaving his old alliance to look for better options in furthering his game.

This is where the idols come in play. Reed’s knowledge of Keith’s idol (found after Reed saw the Idol Rules in Keith’s bag - why he chose Keith of all people, we don’t know, let’s just say he already had a hunch) and Jon’s idol from Exile were the final nails in the Jeremy’s coffin. These were enough to convince Missy and Baylor to make the hit on Jeremy (something Josh wasn’t able to do because, well, he didn’t have an idol for leverage).

While there’s Reed, Missy, Baylor, Jon, and Jacyln who voted for Jeremy out in that last tribal, we already know by now that these alliances are volatile and that control of numbers do not really last especially with a bunch of people whom we know do not really care about friendships within the game (because unlike the first Blood vs Water, there are still quite a lot of Blood connections at this point of the game). We’ve seen two very strategic players, heads of their alliances, eliminated in succession. We’ve seen that a strong social game, numbers, idols, and having a loved one is tricky and temporary power in this game. At the end of the day, having them is one thing but knowing what to do with them is another. Josh said he showed his cards too early, Jeremy kept his too long. Now Jon and Jaclyn have an idol, they’ve risen to the top and they’re a target now. Could they use their weapons cards correctly and hold on to power unlike the first two who tried or will the other castaways figure out a way to seize power from them? This season is picking up pace. There could be some more late bloomers out there, just waiting to deal their cards at the right time.

==========

Notes:

The way power is changing hands every episode and is becoming the downfall of anyone who holds it reminds me of “Game of Thrones” and “The Lord of the Rings”

Was that fake rain during the reward challenge? It looked like fake rain.

Funny when Wes told the others to just tell him when he’s gonna be voted out so he doesn’t get “Hashtag Blindsided” on TV. I’m sensing some premonition here. These Survivor editors would love to flash that #blindside under Wes’ shocked face.

I already knew who got voted off thanks to Survivor’s Facebook site. I’m already used to that but I still watch the actual show just to know how that vote came to be. I don’t know if I can praise the editors for this or blame myself for missing the hints but while the votes were being read, I was really questioning whether I was watching the correct episode. It didn’t seem like Jeremy was gonna get the boot until his name started appearing.

Now I want to watch the Ponderosa clips just because Josh and Jeremy are the first two in.