Survivor San Juan Del Sur Recap
Episode 7

Million Dollar Decision

By Kim Hollis and David Mumpower

November 5, 2014

We all know she's thinking about trail mix.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
The final four players are all men, which lends credence to the idea that holding the ropes requires more power than balance. Keith, Wes, Jon and Drew reach the next stage, which includes the brutal addition of a second ball. All of them weather the full 25 minutes to reach this point, which is extremely impressive. Within moments of the two-ball round, Josh and Jon are eliminated.

The final two players are the father/son tandem of Keith and Wes. Another strong breeze causes Wes to lose, which means that Keith defeats his son for individual immunity. This is a good time to mention that today is Wes’ birthday. His father really should have let him win.

Say what you will about Missy – and we have in this column – she is a much more loyal parent than Dale and Keith. Anyway, Keith is savoring his immunity as he starts to fantasize about smiting Baylor and Missy for their recent tribal council transgressions.

Back at camp after the challenge, everyone is still being snarky about trail mix. Julie stays quiet, which is the smart play. She makes note of the fact that Alec is being the primary instigator. If she survives tonight, he will be Public Enemy #1 for her.

Of course, Julie doesn’t seem to be interested in planning beyond tonight. In fact, she talks to Missy about quitting. Missy, of course, tries to persuade her otherwise, recognizing that losing Julie’s vote would be a potentially crippling loss. This behavior annoys Julie, who was looking for some enabling. We are placing even money on Julie asking for people to vote for her at Tribal Council.

As Julie tries to quit without quitting, Jeremy counts heads. He has deduced that the elimination of Josh would effectively wipe out the competition in the game, as Josh is surrounded by yes men. Conversely, Josh tips his cap about the effort Jeremy is giving as a worthy opponent.




Advertisement



Jon is stuck in the middle. He desperately wants to remain loyal to Jeremy, but he isn’t sure it’s the right play. In addition, that damn trail mix is upsetting him. He wants no part of being in an alliance with a food thief. At this moment, there are three viable names for tonight’s elimination: Jeremy, Josh and Julie. Our money is on Julie since she is campaigning for it. The editing wants us to believe it’s Jeremy.

And we never find out if the editing is correct. Moments after Missy confidently states that Julie will not quit, Not Yet Mrs. John Rocker asks to speak with Jeff Probst. She apparently wants to quit before she gets fired. She acknowledges to Probst that she knows she is about to be voted out anyway. She also rationalizes how she has been victimized and misses her boyfriend, who has only been apart from her for a few days over the past several years.

Our serious question is how professional athlete John Rocker will feel when he learns that his long-term girlfriend is a quitter. That is what happens, and Julie does not even tell the other tribe members, not even her primary ally, Jeremy. Probst walks over to inform them. That’s lame. A quitter should have to look people in the eye and acknowledge they are weak.

From a gameplay perspective, the math of the game just grew alarming for Jeremy. His face says everything. He knows he is screwed. The quitting is great news for Jon and Jaclyn, who jumped to the power alliance at the perfect moment. Whether they are still welcomed next week remains to be seen. And Julie’s elimination technically helps everyone, as there is no Tribal Council or voting out of a player tonight. The battle between Jeremy and Josh will continue for another week.

To a larger point, the producers of Survivor got exactly what they deserved for casting Team John Rocker. One played like an idiot and threatened to beat a woman. The other quit a game that has worked hard in recent seasons to weed out potential quitters. That’s karma.


Continued:       1       2       3       4       5

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.