Survivor Palau : Ep 1 - This Has Never Happened Before
I want to start my commentary on the new Survivor season by making a special dedication for ntv7. After failing to air the final 2 episodes of Survivor Vanuatu (including the reunion special), I wasn’t at all surprised that they’ve decided not to air Survivor Palau. It could be due to several reason.. “technical difficulties” (HAHAAHAHHAHAHA!! That’s just too fucking hilarious), or lack of sponsorship (which might be the case here). But what surprised me most was there was no acknowledgements on their part explaining why the last 2 episodes of Vanuatu was canned. Even queries made by fans on the ntv7 forums remain unanswered. That’s Malaysian professionalism for you, folks. And to think the tv station is too busy focusing on their own pathetic excuse for a reality show called “Who Will Win”. The ironic thing is, if it was a competition between local tv stations, who do you think will win? ntv7 should thank their lucky stars if they even end up in the Top 4. So, here goes my dedication to ntv7, in the eternal words of Johnny Fairplay when he voted Shawn out in the Pearl Island, FUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUU.
Okay, now that I got that out of the system, I managed to download the episode from mIRC on Friday. Since I was on leave last Friday, I was able to download the episode faster than usual, and that allowed me to watch the first episode of Survivor Palau by 8:00 pm. If you’d like a detailed synopsis for the episode, CBS’s website provides a pretty comprehensive summary. However, here’s my cliff notes’ version of the first episode.
20 Survivors rowing in a row boat. Jeff Probst comes up in a speed boat telling them that the game has begun, and there’s two immunity necklaces waiting for them on the beach. One for the men, and one for the women. Survivors starts rowing in the boat towards the beach. Jonathan and Stephanie gets imaptient and jumps off the boat to swim towards the shore. Unfortunately for them, swimming against the tides was not a good idea, as they trailed behind the boat. Boat reaches within a few feet of the beach. Everyone jumps off and starts running for the immunity. Ian wins immunity for the guys. Jolanda wins immunity for the girls. Everyone remained on the beach for the first day. Single flag with no tribe names on it. Next day, Jeff Probst comes to the beach and announces that their immunity will only last for the next 10 minutes as they start picking new tribe members - with an inhumane twist thrown in - last two to get picked will be sent home immediately.
The pickings start with Ian and Jolanda, who will be alternatively pick between men and women. The person who they picked will in turn pick another team member. This is how it went :
(Koror tribe) Ian picked Katie who picked Tom who picked Janu who picked Gregg who picked Jen who picked Coby who picked Caryn who picked Willard which automatically eliminated Jonathan
Koror - (L-R) - Willard, Caryn, Jennifer, Janu, Coby, Tom, Katie, Gregg, Ian
(Ulong tribe) Jolanda picked Bobby Jon who picked Stephenie who picked Jeff who picked Kim who picked James who picked Ashlee who picked Ibrehem who picked Angie which automatically eliminated Wanda
Ulong - (L-R) - Angie, Kim, Jeff, Ibrehem, Stephenie, James, Bobby Jon, Ashlee, Jolanda
The tribes then lived together on the same beach.. until the next immunity challenge. The immunity challenge was an obstacle course through the jungle involving carrying a few rewards (ie. flint, food rations, tarp and some other stuff). In a nutshell, Koror breezed through the challenge easily because they show the only reward that matters (the flint for making fire), whereas Ulong lost ground when they tried to bring ALL of the rewards along with them. Koror wins immunity and was given the choice to either stay on the beach or move to a new beach. They chose the latter. Unfortunately for them, their boat overturned on the way to the new beach, and in the process, lost the flint into the ocean. LOL. Ulong heads to tribal council, and Jolanda was voted out on a 6-3 vote because she was not seen as a team player and was too bossy. And that wrapped up episode one.
1st Episode Castaway Impressions
KOROR
Ian : I was ready to hate this guy. I mean, have you seen his dorkish official picture on the CBS website? I thought he was gonna be as dorky (if not dorkier) than Ryan Shoulders from Pearl Island. However, I was so pleasantly surprised with his character on the show. He’s athletic, he’s friendly, he’s quite funny. Probably the castaways with the most positive editing so far. I like him. And I would like to see him go very very far indeed. It’s about time we get a geeky millionaire.
Katie : She reminds me too much of Jenna Lewis (*puke* *gag*). She even talks like her but she’s not annoying enough for me to dislike her. Yet, anyway. I was surprised to see Ian picked Katie first out of the whole bunch. She’s not exactly the most athletic women out there. She’s got a few narrator confessionals but I’m not sure if she’ll be a major player this season.
Tom : You gotta love Tom the firefighter. His comments about not wanting to work on starting the fire made me chuckle. He seems smart and reminds me of Jake. I would like to see him go far indeed.
Janu : I love love love Janu. She does remind me a bit of Diana Ross. This Las Vegas showgirl impressed the hell out of me when she climbed up the coconut tree. She also made some comments on whether it was a good call to climb the tree or not. That shows that she’s a thinker - not to show that she was a physical threat but also at the same time, she can be very useful around camp. I hope Janu goes far.
Gregg : Gregg’s editing was neither positive nor negative. It was just right, he had two confessionals when they arrived on the beach, and a scene where he gave his prep talk on them being able to hold it strong as a team, even though they were not that physically great compared to Ulong. He’s playing a low key game, as all token alpha males should be. He’s going far, and is my pick for the win.
Jen : If it’s not Gregg, then Jen is my next pick to win. Jen was practically invisible this episode. Hello.. the dog that didn’t bark? Another Tina-redux? Jolanda had a quote after winning her immunity necklace : “I’m not gonna let that skinny little girl beat me”. After rewatching and rewatching the episode (these girls all look so damn alike), the skinny little girl Jo was referring to was Jennifer. If I was a betting man, I’d say that was the million-dollar quote.
Coby : Boy.. what a flaming queen. I don’t usually have any problems with flaming queens (I love Brandon), but Coby? Not so much. He comes off annoying to me because he is a tad catty than necessary. That said, he does give us good television with his commentaries, and he did show us some of his game plan (his plan to get rid of Jonathan worked). But I’m still iffy over the fact that he screwed Angie by not picking her. Would I like to see him go far? Probably.. but I’m kinda hoping he’ll only get as far as the merge.
Caryn : The token mom this season seems a little laid back. She seemed a bit bossy during the first day, but she’ll probably get a wake up call when she sees that Jolanda got voted off. I’m pretty sure she’ll tone it down. Other than that, Caryn seems like a nice lady and I’m glad she’s on this team.
Willard : This old chap must’ve done something right to make Caryn choose him over Jonathan. But most likely Caryn needs an older person than her on the tribe to secure her position. Willard didn’t appear much in this episode, but his commentary about “wanting to push Wanda off the boat (because of her singing)” won me over. I don’t see him going far, though.
ULONG
Jolanda : I was hoping she’d stay longer in the game, but she really shouldn’t have ordered and boss people around, especially NOT when they’ve just lost a challenge, which incidentally was a hundred percent her fault in the first place. Jo was a bit delusional, but I’m not sure if booting her was a good idea, because despite all that, she WAS one of the strongest on the team.
Bobby Jon : Pretty boy BJ didn’t get much airtime this episode (thank GOD!). I don’t know, everytime I watch him on TV, I just feel like I need to watch myself. He’s just too icky for my own liking. I hope he goes soon.
Stephenie : Although she was cocky enough to jump in the water, hoping to beat the boat to the shore, I actually like Stephenie. She’s a cross between Jerri and Sandra, in my opinion. With Jolanda gone, I’m guessing she’s gonna step up and become the leader.
Jeff : Nope.. despite the eye candy factor, nothing about Jeff really jumped out to me this episode. He might lead this tribe now that Jolanda is gone (”I don’t take orders”), and I hear he’s got a romantic story arc coming up. I honestly don’t know if he’s in it for the long haul.
Kim : Nothing out of Kim this episode. She’s rumoured to be the one romantically linked to Jeff. Other than that, I’m not sure if she’ll be any factor in this game at all. Nope. Nothing.
James : Oh for crying out loud. Twila already filled my year’s redneck quota… not another one, please. I don’t know. Some people are amused by his antics, but I’m not buying his schtick. HELL NO. Okay let me rephrase that. HEY-YELL NOEE. Stupid dumbass redneck. Begone soon. There’s nothing endearing about this guy at all.
Ashlee : Reminds me of Diana DeGarmo. She seems like Stephenie’s second hand woman and had a few cute confessionals in this episode, but anything note worthy? I’m not really sure.
Ibrehem : Cool. The first Moslem contestant. It’s pretty ironic that he’s got tattoo’s on his arms, but to each his own. He seemed pretty quiet this episode, and probably playing it low like Gregg. Either that or we’ve got ourselves another Outback Nick. I’m still undecided on this guy.
Angie : Freaky tattoo girl aka the Female Lex. I actually like Angie’s kookiness. She’s got the underdog theme going on with her. Social outcast, screwed by another castway so early in the game, she was the last one picked for the tribe, and she received votes at the tribal council. I think Angie will last at least for another couple of episodes, but yeah. I really like her.
SENT HOME :
Wanda : I was so glad to see her go. We so didn’t need a crazy singing lady on the island. Buh-bye.
Jonathan : I would NEVER have expected a jock to be picked last in a pick-em situation. Poor Jonathan. If he didn’t jump into the ocean so early in the game, it could’ve turned out differently.
(will edit in Picks for next week later.. but my gut says that Ulong will lose again, and Jeff is toast)
