Thursday, April 12, 2012

One World: Episode 9

Hurray! Finally, the Untouchables take a hit! And what a blow it was - one strong player out of the game, and another that's been declawed. Things could not have worked out better, all thanks to Kim's brilliant strategic mind. It's pretty amazing that she's as good at this as she is, considering how her all-woman alliance appears to be trying their hardest to ruin her schemes every single week. Chelsea nearly blows it last week, Alicia's blatant confidence in her own safety set Troyzan on guard this week... next week I expect Sabrina or Kat to do some unusually foolish as well. 

I think that one reason the women have been so successful this season is also because the men are none too bright themselves. Jay should never have felt comfortable this week, not after what happened last week. Until now I thought he'd done a good job of being really adaptable any situation - like when he switched from Rooster alliance to Outcast alliance on the men's tribe with barely a blink of the eye. I think he got too comfortable, which is a place you should never be in Survivor.
 

The Standings:

Untouchables - Seriously don't touch me: Doug/Bri - 56 pts
[1. Jay (30 pts)]
2. Troyzan (20 pts)
3. Alicia (6 pts)

All Balls, No Brains: Dachui - 34 pts
[1.Michael (22 pts)]
[2. Bill (1 pt)]
3. Kat (11 pts)

The Sycophants: Moon- 25 pts
[1. Jonas (11 pts)]
2. Sabrina (11 pts)
3. Tarzan (3 pts)

Ladies of Ephesus: Me - 25 pts
1. Chelsea (17 pts)
[2. Monica (2 pts)]
3. Christina (6 pts) 

Pride of Chucky: Bag/Leah - 24 pts
1. Kim (16 pts)
2. Leif (5 pts)
[3. Colton (3 pts)]


Power Rankings:

1. Pride of Chucky - General Kim does it again. She is working this social network so masterfully that it really is impressive to watch. To me it looks like she's developed a great system where her "sergeants" each are in charge of passing info along to their select group of people. Sgt. Alicia is in charge of the Manono rejects, Sgt. Chelsea was her Troyzan/Jay liaison, and Sgt. Sabrina holds all the ladies together. And all three of them are so thrilled to be a "higher rank" than the others on the tribe that they're happily going along with all of Kim's schemes. Brilliantly played.

2. Untouchables - Seriously don't touch me - Troyzan is in a lot of trouble next week, and I think he'll have a lot of trouble trying to crack the women's alliance. It's gone SO well so far that I don't think the women will see any reason to switch over. He doesn't have an immunity idol and he's too big of a threat to go against in a final tribal to make it worthwhile. Alicia is actually in a pretty good spot - she seems to be in a good alliance with the women, but is definitely the type of player who will keep her options open & is likely to be the first to flip. Although if Kim knows that (and she probably does) that may actually put a bigger target on her back.

3. Ladies of Ephesus - Christina's a ghost, which is only a good thing. I think Chelsea may have a hole to dig out of after her erratic behavior the past couple of weeks, but I think winning that immunity challenge (both through strength & guile) will really boost her confidence going into the next few weeks. I'm optimistic that her missteps may make her seem like less of a target once the ladies start to turn against each other, too.

4. The Sycophants - Sabrina & Tarzan aren't major players right now, but laying low may be a good strategy to have at this point. Sabrina seems really unlikely to be blindsided by anyone, and Tarzan's just happy to vote however he's told, so he's making himself useful. These two could be potentially powerful swing votes once the bigger threats are eliminated, although I don't see Sabrina turning on Kim anytime soon, so it may end up being too little too late.

5. No Brains - I was most surprised by Kat's smooth talking slyness in this episode. Way to go Kat! She lied to Jay better than any of them except Gen. Kim, and seems very focused on their alliance & long-term goals together. I still don't think this team has a chance to win, but I am starting to root for Kat more now.


Douche of the Week:  

Tarzan takes Week 8's DoW for the first repeat DoW win in Douche of the Week History! (Trumpets blare triumphantly) 


This week I didn't really feel like there was a DoW, but I'm going to vote for Alicia who should have known better than to bow out of a challenge when she's supposed to act like she's worried about being eliminated. And because she's just generally a douche.

5 comments:

Bag said...

I also vote for Alicia. Her constantly asserting that she felt safe was the primary factor in Troyzan figuring it out. Though, I thought her read on Troyzan's shorts was pretty awesome.

TheGraveWolf said...

Alicia is definitely a douche but my vote for DoW once again is going to Chelsea.

Her constant waffling about what she could or couldn't do may have dropped her down the ladder of the women's alliance. Pointing out her strong ties to Jay and Troyzan, both likely jury members, is another knock against her.

Glad she won the challenge for the pool points but once again she seems to have painted a target on her back.

Definitely thought there were more obvious and standard douches this episode but I was disappointed by Chelsea the most.

Doug said...

Kim is looking really strong. I wonder if anyone in this group is smart enough to realize it and then strong enough to eventually do something about it. I can see her pretty easily winning the whole thing if she makes the final tribal.

Hard to pick a DoW but I'm going with Troyzan for his hosting of the do-it-yourself reward challenge. It was like watching and listening to Spud on a New Year's video. Brutal.

Speaking of the do-it-yourself challenge, what the hell? Does Jeff negotiate days off within the 2 month period he works each year? And how bad did all the Survivors suck at what is essentially Ladder Golf? And only 1 throw? What a boring challenge. They better step it up next week.

TheGraveWolf said...

Lol, stupid spud.

GnightMoon said...

Kim for DoW. Her cold precision throughout the game has been impressive to watch, reminiscent of the great Boston Rob. This last week was merciless.

This is a four-horse race! I think you did a great job ranking the teams but it's really, really close...I could see any of us winning. Either Pride of Chucky or Untouchables should be down to one member by this time, but Ephesus and Sycophants might not have the ponies to rack up enough points in the immunities. From the perspective of pool competition, this is the most exciting season we've had.