Survivor: Nicaragua - Worst Case Scenario

Posted by: Paul Little  •  October 20, 2010 @ 9:37pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

Tonight's gonna be a quick review/recap of the latest episode of Survivor -- unlike the episode itself, which went on and on and on. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though. Things went slow because it was all about strategy and voting this week, with both teams heading to Tribal Council in a now-regular twist. The challenge (which doubled as both an Individual Immunity challenge for members of each tribe, and a Reward Challenge between each tribe's winner) was over about 10 minutes in, and the rest of the episode saw strategizing, double talk, scrambling, and of course plans falling apart.

The episode's title -- "Worst Case Scenario" -- came from Jill winning Individual Immunity on La Flor, meaning the remaining younger majority (which now includes Jane) had to go after one of their own with Marty possibly playing his hidden idol. This meant La Flor had to try to split their votes to hopefully flush out the idol AND get someone out. Since they're still convinced she would get everyone's sympathy vote in a final Tribal Council for the $1 million, the second target of the split votes was Kelly B., and even without Marty playing his idol, she still went home. Fabio switched his vote around during the re-vote, no doubt because of Marty's talk with him earlier (more on that later).

Also going home -- with La Flor watching on enjoying their reward of beef and chicken kabobs -- was Yve from Espada. The young people, who had complete control over which way the vote went, felt that Yve was way more of a threat, so apparently they don't mind that Dan will continue to contribute to losing challenges every week with his extreme weakness (not to mention his waffling on if he even wants to stay in the game). Dan -- who constantly talks about how wealthy and successful he is -- even managed to say that the hard-working and relatively soft-spoken Yve was arrogant. Of course nobody came to her defense (at least in what we saw of Tribal), and so another of the few relatively likable castaways is sent home yet again.

I was actually quite impressed with Holly this week, despite not being a big fan. She kicked ass in the Individual Immunity, and almost won her tribe the reward (with Jill just edging her out). She also has come full circle from her early days in Nicaragua, when she had basically packed it in, responding to Dan's desire to go home in the best way possible: "Suck it up." Sure, she just said it in a confessional, and not to his face, but it's true. I can't possibly imagine how difficult it is to be out there without much food or sleep, tired and aching, away from family and friends and civilization. But you're in a position so many wish they were, and only a select few get to be in. On Survivor, quitters are the worst. Almost-quitters, who then pretend they never felt such a thing, are nearly as bad. And yet Dan is still playing the game.

Over on La Flor, the conversation Marty had with Fabio (trying to lay some groundwork for a future alliance to keep he and Jill alive against all the young folks) was probably the highlight. As nice a guy as Fabio seems to be, he's not the brightest, and as soon as the words "grand master chess player" came out of Marty's mouth, I knew Fabio would bite. Seems the name Marty dropped was some South American tennis great, but certainly no chess player, and Marty didn't beat him twice as a kid. But Fabio bought it, along with everything Marty said afterward about making a huge play together later on that would go down in Survivor history. I guarantee this faux-trust is why Fabio so easily switched his vote over to Kelly B., despite being convinced to vote for Marty by Brenda et al originally.

Not much else happened this week. Espada continued to falter, La Flor continued to fight behind the scenes but somehow pretend to be all friendly to each other, and nearly everyone got on my nerves. But damnit if I still don't love this show! What do you think? I'm starving for some comments from others. How is this season compared to others? Are you cheering anyone on? Are you happy the Medallion of Power went the way of the dodo last week?

Tags: Survivor, Nicaragua, Marty, Yve, Dan, Kelly B., Jane, Brenda, Holly, reality

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Paul Little is the founder and Managing Editor of ShowbizMonkeys.com. When not interviewing his favourite musicians and comedians, he can also be found putting on and promoting music and comedy events with The Purple Room in Winnipeg, or co-producing the live comedy game shows Pants on Fire and The Great Patio Showdown. (@comedygeek)

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