Brilliant and Boneheaded 'Survivor' Plays of the Week: Girls Just Want to Have an Alliance
Warning: Spoilers ahead for this week’s episode of Survivor.
Who rules the Survivor world? Not always the girls.
We’ve seen the attempt to form an all-female alliance on several seasons of Survivor — most notably, and successfully, on Micronesia. It’s a fearsome thought, and one that leaves strong, hardy, clever men quaking.
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The problem is, just because you’re all women doesn’t mean everyone trusts each other. On Survivor, true loyalty is rare. And having a gender in common doesn’t mean you automatically get that loyalty.
That’s the rude lesson Monica learns this week, after she’s voted out for musing about a girls’ alliance to Kimmi. And Kimmi immediately runs off to tattle on her. Who runs the Survivor world? Self-interest, pure and simple.
Boneheaded Play of the Week: Monica
Let us all remind ourselves that we’re still before the merge, so talking about the post-merge future is not just wishful thinking, but an actively dangerous endeavor.
But Monica does just that! After Bayon loses the challenge, the core four (Jeremy, Kimmi, Monica, and Spencer) are trying to decide between voting out KellyWig or Spencer. It’s a tough choice, since KellyWig is less diabolical, but Spencer needs them more. They’re just about settled on voting out KellyWig, when Monica muses to Kimmi that they might want to keep her around… in case they eventually want to form a girls’ alliance.
Again, “in case.” Because we’re still some time away from the merge. We’re in the thick of tribal politics, where numbers rule. And the former Bayons have the numbers. It should be an easy choice between KellyWig and Spencer.
Instead, Monica has to start talking about a future that is far, far away (we’re talking hoverboard and auto-lacing shoes territory), and it dooms her. Kimmi isn’t comfortable with looking that far ahead, or with aligning herself with a crazy person who can’t count numbers. And with that, Monica is out.
Brilliant Play of the Week: Joe
Here’s how you think about the future, without coming across as too crafty like Monica: Form actual, people-specific alliances. So while Monica was dreaming about a potential all-girls alliance, Joe was trying to lock down a five-person group. He knows he’s a big physical threat once the merge comes, and he’s trying to negate that by getting his alliance in order.
He even mostly admits that to Ciera, Kass, Keith, and KelleyWent, but his vulnerability works. He’s not pondering some pie-in-the-sky, vague idea. (“Hey, everyone with dark hair, let’s team up!”) Instead, he’s pouncing on a slightly pre-formed group, and grafting onto it. And it seems to work.
Not only that, he does it with a group that contains Keith, so Joe knows he’s the alpha dog of the bunch. He might be pretty, but the guy also seems to be smart.
Power rankings:
Bayon: Stephen
Ta Keo: Joe
Angkor: Woo
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
