Survivor: Samoa, week six

The first person to leave the game for medical reasons was in season two when some doofus fell into the fire. It didn’t happen again for a very long time, but now it seems like it happens every season… and sometimes, as in Samoa, twice or more. I have to wonder if there’s been some fundamental change in the game’s structure that makes it more likely for people to be taken out on account of injury or illness.

An observation: ribes seem to get much less food now. Didn’t they used to start the game out with a giant bag of rice or beans? Chowing on insects and native fruits is all well and good, but rice is filling. It’s hard to imagine Black Russell dropping the way he did if he’d had a belly full of rice.

I realize, of course, that it was a combination of the hunger, cold and exhaustion that did him in. A few episodes ago he chose some blankets and pillows over a tarp after winning a reward challenge. Now the blankets are soaked and Galu has no armor against the rain. Sitting naked but dry under a tarp is better than being wrapped in a drenched blanket, but of course the silly skinny women on Galu wouldn’t have agreed, and Russell had to make a poor decision in order to placate them. He said as much to his tribe afterwards. Well, he came to rue that decision.

After Russell fainted, Probst called off the challenge and declared neither tribe would win a reward. I think that was a bad call. The plan had to change at that point; instead of both tribes voting someone out, they had neither tribe vote anyone out. They still had a massive tribal council, with both tribes present, to discuss the day’s events. It’s good to see there is still a strong, healthy rivalry between these two tribes. I think, though, that both tribes should have enjoyed the promised pizza reward during that discussion. Galu would have recovered some from having their chief airlifted out of the game, and Foa Foa wouldn’t have felt so robbed of their victory. It would have been a nice, fair thing to do.

But then, nobody’s ever accused Probst of being nice.

I was amused at Foa Foa’s bellyaching about the challenge they would have won. I can see why Erik over on Galu took it personally; of course Foa Foa would have won if Probst hadn’t called the challenge. Galu’s best player was on the ground passed out! If Foa Foa can only win if Galu plays handicapped, that’s nothing to be proud of. I enjoyed Erik’s declaration afterwards, about how all the heart and sweat Russell brought to the game, and how Galu still plans to take that with them to challenges. I daresay he meant it. Slight bickering aside, Galu has always loved their chief. I imagine Erik will take that role now, and he means to wipe the smirk off Foa Foa’s face.

Who’s gonna win? If anything good came of this episode, it’s that I don’t have to keep typing “White Russell” and “Black Russell”. The only Russell left now is Foa Foa’s, my lovable jerkass bastard, and still my pick to win.