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Survivor fans, watch for our quiz, How Well Do You Know: Survivor: Tocantins, to be published the morning after the series finale!

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Previously on Survivor, Eddie George made his first appearance. This happened when his wife, Taj, was given a choice to go to Exile Island, thereby allowing the other remaining contestants to visit with loved ones. The grandiose title of this episode was The Ultimate Sacrifice, a hugely misleading description. Had Taj been forced to choose between seeing her husband or the others getting to see their loved ones, that would be a potential display of selfless sacrifice. Instead, Taj got a much more secluded rendezvous with her husband. If that's a benevolent act, every person in the world on a romantic getaway this week is destined for Heaven.

Also, Deb was voted out. This was boring.

In terms of the remaining Survivor contenders, five remain. Coach, the laughing stock, has been edited to have almost no chance of winning. Erinn, his frenemy since the start, is in the same boat unless something surprising happens. We'll discuss the possibilities in this regard for Sunday's column, assuming she survives tonight's vote. Taj is the happy to be there player in our estimation, despite playing an excellent game. She made a strong alliance with first Stephen and later JT with the end result being that she became the tribe's mother hen instead of Deb. Even as she was being eliminated, Deb still didn't fully grasp that this was the case. We are of the opinion that Taj has been one of the best strategists this season; however, people now realize she needs another million dollars the same way that Aquaman needs swimming lessons.





This leaves two players to discuss, J.T. and Stephen. What we termed early on as a surprising bromance has evolved into the game's power couple a la Rob and Amber, albeit with (presumably) less kissing. Stephen is one of the best strategists in the show's history yet we are of the opinion that J.T. might be even better in this regard. The southern youth has gleefully relished his ability to betray any number of players without anyone suspecting him capable of such treachery. A genteel southern accident goes a long way in fostering trust from strangers, apparently.

Stating the obvious, the winner of Survivor this season is going to be either Stephen or J.T. The decision will be resolved by whether Stephen is punished by embittered, jealous voters or not. J.T.'s amiable personality makes him Mr. Congeniality, but it's possible he will be viewed as too simple-minded to deserve the title of Survivor champion. His subtle brand of treachery may prove too deft in the end. In that scenario, Stephen takes the grand prize. Otherwise, J.T.'s popularity wins the day. All of this changes the instant that the other three players grow proactive in targeting either of these two for elimination. WHY OH WHY WON'T THE THREE OF YOU WORK TOGETHER TO ELIMINATE THE GAME'S POWER DUO??? Please let this happen tonight. Otherwise, we're facing two hours of rather dull television on Sunday.

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