Survivor: Island of the Idols

Episode 3: Quest for Fire

By Kim Hollis & David Mumpower

October 12, 2019

Hoo boy.

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Previously on Survivor, someone got voted off for being likable. This may be unprecedented, at least this early in the game. It’s going to be one of those Russell Hantz-type seasons where all of the vile people get the nice people voted off early, thereby almost guaranteeing that a terrible person wins.

Also, there is someone called Noura. The less said about her, the better.

This week promises someone looking down and seeing the bone in their hand, which makes us wonder what exactly the producers think we want to watch. Richard Hatch really ruined this for all of us, but at least he got his with the jail sentence.

Jason is very happy that he wasn’t voted out, mainly because he and Noura were the prime targets. Noura asks if anyone wants to talk and is met with silence.

Recognizing that he and Jamal are both now in terrible spots, Jack addresses Kellee and Tommy, wondering about his future position in the game. They assure him that even though Jack was allied with bootee Molly, they really only targeted Molly because people were scared of her. Yes, her scary, scary niceness.

Jack is appeased, but Tommy has harder work with Jamal, who forgives but doesn’t forget.

Camp Lairo is more jubilant, as the women are celebrating their alliance, while the men are enjoying some quiet. The guys recognize that the numbers are a problem, so they approach Vince to put together a dude strategy. For Vince’s part, he says yes, but as far as he’s concerned, the men didn’t care about him until his vote was valuable to him. He’s a stealth member of the women’s alliance.

Back over to Vokai and Dan is noticing that Noura is… annoying. Obnoxious. Offensive. He enlists everyone in his effort to eliminate her, but Jamal plans to go rogue if need be. He also thinks Dan is icky (he is). So, he starts rallying tribemates against the creepy touchy-feely guy.

Side note: One of our pet peeves in Survivor is when someone says, “I love xxxx.” You’ve known these people for six days. You don’t love them. In this case, the sin is committed by Tommy, who claims to “love” Jamal. Mmm hmm. “I love xxxx” is always followed by a big “but.”

With that, the gross injury occurs. Karishma, who had gotten absolutely no screen time up until moments ago when she talked about her discomfort around running around in her underwear. She is cutting a coconut, and accidentally cuts her hand to the bone. Not one of her teammates cares. We can seriously say WTF?

“You can tell that people don’t want to play with you by the way they treat you at camp,” she says. “All of these people are dead to me.”

We suppose the injury isn’t as bad as it appears, because she’s bandaged up in her confessional to the camera. And with that, the drama is… over?

A note arrives instructing Vince to go to the Island of the Idols, and he’s off. As the remainder of the tribe is standing around, someone named Dean stupidly tells them all that they should “split the vote.” Uh, between whom? Vince and?

Karishma figures it’s her, and we think she’s probably right. In the meantime, Vince has discovered Rob and Sandra. He cries when Rob asks him where he’s from. Rob says it’s humbling to know that he’s had such a big impact on someone.

Vince’s lesson for the day is around staying calm under pressure. He gives Vince a torch, and tells him that he’ll need to steal into the Vokai camp and take fire from them. If he accomplishes it, he’ll get an idol good for the next two Tribal Councils. If not, he loses his vote. Vince agrees to the test.

The two “coaches” show Vince a map of the camp and help him plan his invasion. Sandra says she’ll teach him to low crawl, promising to give him all five years of her military training.




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While Island of the Idols is like Survivor Boot Camp, Rob says that Vince’s session is more like real boot camp. He needles Sandra about being noisy when she showed Vince how to be stealthy.

We’ve decided that they should just give Rob and Sandra a buddy reality show. It’d be better than at least eight out of the last ten seasons.

When Vince arrives at Vokai, it’s pitch black, his shoes are making noise, and he’s scared someone will see him. Also, their fire is dead, making him realize that the other tribe is a bunch of dummies. Someone wakes up screaming from a nightmare, which is just bad luck.

He makes a bit of noise as he tries to shovel some ash and other types of proof into a canister, but the Vokai tribe doesn’t awaken. He falls on the way out of the camp, but still manages to get back to Rob and Sandra. They award him the Immunity Idol, which Vince says he’ll need to use appropriately.

Karishma is probably toast. Mmm… toast.

With all that out of the way, Probst is here to smarm us through the Immunity Challenge. One person has to swim out and retrieve a key. Olympic swimmer Elizabeth will do the key task for Lairo, while lifeguard Janet is up for Vokai.

Although Janet stays within admirable range of Elizabeth, she struggles to get her key. Lairo is on to the next task, which is to balance a teeter totter. One member of the tribe must untie a bag at the end of the teeter totter. Probst claims that the challenge has gotten close. Missy gets their first bag, which falls into the water. After Kellee picks up Volkai’s first bag, Missy pulls the second one down for Lairo. They go back to the shore to start their fish puzzle.

In fact, Volkai is not far behind Lairo, as they get to shore quickly to start their puzzle..

Karishma’s name is now “Super Toast,” because she blows the puzzle completely. If the vote is in fact split between her and Vince, she’s going home. It’s probably justified, honestly. On the plus side, they do care about her now. On the negative side, it’s for all the wrong reasons.

The dudes scheme, but I suspect that the women will vote for Dean, because he was stupid enough to mention the vote splitting idea. Also, Missy’s offended that the men seem to think they should be calling the shots.

Vince suggests to his female allies that Tom is the best vote, but Elizabeth has come to view Tom as a father figure for the tribe. As he talks to Karishma about her precarious position, she refuses to name a name, which drives him to distraction. He tells her to vote for Tom.

Unless Vince misses the clues and fails to play his idol, he should be safe. Looks like Tom is out, even though dumb Dean should be the target.

At Tribal Council, Karishma feels like she’s on the outside looking in at the “sorority” of Elizabeth, Chelsea, and Missy. They apologize to her, but the editing has made it appear that she has held herself aloof.

Probst questions some other folks, but this Tribal is pretty much all about Karishma. At one point, she goes and whispers to all the other girls, which proves to be a… weird move. No one, including her allies, knows what to make of it. She’s probably played herself out of the game today.

Vince does NOT play his idol, though. Rob and Sandra are sick, as he’s leaving with the idol they put in his pocket. For some reason, the women do split the vote. Feels like a missed opportunity, but Karishma still breathes a huge sigh of relief.


     


 
 

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