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Rhune
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Episode 11 Recaps
« on: Dec 6^th, 2002, 10:11am »

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Family Abounds on 'Survivor: Thailand'
Thu, Dec 5, 2002 11:30 PM PDT
by Brill Bundy
Zap2it, TV News

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - With only two weeks until the finale, "Survivor: Thailand" whittled itself down to five on Thursday (Dec. 5) night, with the former Chuay Gahns once again banding together to vote off the last remaining Sook Jai member, sending 60-year-old land broker Jake Billingsley home to McKinney Texas.

While this was a predictable move, in the first few minutes of the show a possible alternate was proposed by Clay's obnoxious behavior.

At the last Tribal Council, Jake asserted that the Chuay Jai trible had determined that they would vote people off by how little they contributed. Jake said he's interested to see how this will play out since he's safe in the knowledge that he is one of the most productive contestants.

This doesn't sit well with Clay who decides to vent once they have returned to camp.

Helen thinks that Clay is upset because he knows what Jake said is true and Clay knows that everyone else has noticed just how little the 46-year-old restaurant owner has done for the tribe. After all, as of Day 32, he has only gone on one water run during which he swamped the boat.

Ted summarizes everyone's feelings by noting that Clay's behavior has become annoying.

A twist is offered up for the next luxury challenge. Jeff calls them together and then one by one brings out assorted loved ones. However, no one is allowed to greet or touch.

Jeff brings up the fact that the survivors have had a remarkably easy time of it food wise, not having to resort to eating any of the local bugs. Yet, he wonders if they would eat creepy crawlers if it meant that they would get to spend time with their family.

All of the contestants eagerly nod -- not that it matters. The actual luxury challenge requires the visitors to scarf down ants, water bugs, live grubs, a spider and a scorpion. The winner gets to spend spend 24 hours with their castaway.

With much encouragement from Helen, her husband Jim manages to come through and win.

It turns out that Jim is quite impressed at how well Helen is doing. It seems the navy swim instructor's idea of roughing it is having to walk down the hall to an ice machine.

Together the two spend a little time strategizing. Jim suggests she should get rid of Brian since he seems like the biggest threat, but Helen insists she wouldn't have gotten as far as she has if it wasn't for the porn actor turned used-car salesman.

After Jim is packed off, it's time for the next Immunity Challenge. It turns out that everyone's loved one has been waiting in the wings and gets trotted out again to pair with their partners and help solve Thai puzzles.

Ted wins with the help of his brother. After hugs all around, all spouses, sons and brothers are sent home for good.

Helen talks to Brian about getting rid of Clay, but instead they go down the predictable alliance path and out goes Jake.

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Rhune
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Re: Episode 11 Recaps
« Reply #1 on: Dec 6^th, 2002, 10:14am »

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Jake Off

Finally, we get an entertaining episode, says Dalton Ross, as Jake is voted off, the family visit is a riot, and little Clay acts up

Okay, now we can get down to business. Despite Mark Burnett's trademark sneaky little pump fake, we all knew Jake was gonna go, right? And I'm glad he did. Not because he was a bad guy or 'cause I couldn't handle looking at that mangy beard any longer, but rather now, after a month of simply playing out the string, we can finally get to the good stuff and watch these former friends of Chuay Ghan turn on each other.

Still, even though we all knew Jake was a goner, this past episode was pretty entertaining. (Remember, we're grading on a curve here, against the other recent boring-as-hell ''Thailand'' episodes.) First we got to see little man Clay act like a jackass for no apparent reason when he took Jake to task for his comments at the previous tribal council. Yo, Clay, dude -- YOU DO NOTHING!!! He called you on it. Big deal. Then we had the old family visit challenge, which usually bores me to tears, but this was actually pretty fun. Watching the loved ones try to put down water roaches, tarantulas, and scorpions was pretty hilarious. I mean, how many times did Helen's husband Jim appear like he was gonna Ralph right on Jeff Probst? That was priceless.

Then there was Brian's wife, Ci-Ci, who refused to eat a water bug in order to see her husband. Perhaps these soft porn stars don't have the rock solid relationship we all thought they had. Gee, go figure. (Did you also notice how when the loved ones came back for the reward challenge, and all the couple were all kissy-kissy, Brian and Ci-CI were only talking about how he was going to win the money? Ain't love grand?) Throw in Ted's brother's wacky facial hair, and an ''I love you!'' shouting contest between Clay and his wife, and you had one pretty good segment. Jim's visit to the camp, however, was pretty boring, and I certainly didn't need to see that night vision shot into his and Helen's ''honeymoon suite'' tent.

So now we probably go one of two directions. Either the three guys gang up on the two women and take them out, or Helen organizes the troops against Clay. While I'd prefer the latter, I think the former is probably a more likely scenario. And, truthfully, a smarter one for Brian. He's a lock to win in the finals if he goes with Clay, so why should he tempt fate with Helen? And Jan? Well, she probably doesn't stand a chance in hell, but I'd at least like to see her get drunk once more. You know, for old times' sake.

Who do you think is in the best position to win?

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Rhune
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Re: Episode 11 Recaps
« Reply #2 on: Dec 6^th, 2002, 10:26am »

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Survivor Barbs: Puzzle of a Downfall Tribe (Episode 11)
12.05.02
By James Barber

Here we are in Thailand. Another week of teasers and promos designed to shock us. Another episode designed to make very nice background noise. I kept waiting for the surprises, and finally decided that only the castaways were supposed to be surprised, and the viewers didn't matter at all. The whole episode had that feel. Filler. Very leisurely, certainly not terrible, but not stunning or shocking or even eyebrow-raising.

The episode begins with Clay reveling in rubbing Jake's face in the dirt after his TC remarks. A few in the tribe are horrified, especially Ted, who cannot imagine being so cruel when options like wandering off in a boat or rolling your eyes while sitting inches away from the person speaking are far more proper ways to show your anger. Morning breaks, and the tribe bemoan their hunger and how low they feel. What they need is something like Red Berets to...oops, never mind. The problem here is that Chuay Gahn have generally been edited as being miserable and unhappy from day 1. So I can't exactly weep at the changes in them from then to now. If someone superimposed day 4 over the day 31 tag, edited in photos of Tanya and Ghandia, and rubbed out Jake, I doubt anyone would even notice the difference.

The reward challenge arrives, as do the family members. Seeing more of the faces and personalities only hinted at in the videos was a nice way to pass the time. They all seemed to be interesting people. Jake's wife and Helen's husband's face-off was more suspenseful than most of the challenges have been this season (now let's see them dragging a dummy around Tribal Council!). I was very proud of Jake's wife, as I'm sure he was. Brian almost snapping out of robot mode for 1.5 seconds when his wife arrived was a pleasant moment, especially since during the immunity greeting, he seemed more concerned with putting her in a headlock and spitting in her ear about his plan to win.

Helen's husband, Jim seemed happier to be at camp than Kathy's son was last season. Or he hid his displeasure better. Either way, this was the first time in months that Helen took up such a major role. Unfortunately, that time revealed her to be gullible and a sheep to Brian, but that really wasn't a surprise either. I keep envisioning her winning final 3 immunity and choosing Brian so he can win, the only difference being that at least Tina did seem to genuinely like Colby, whereas Brian seems to barely tolerate Helen and has made not-so-friendly remarks behind her back (go to the CBS Thailand site, then episode 4 video clips - the clip titled something like Brian's thoughts on Helen), although I suppose Brian could truly respect and cherish Helen and all indications have been kept from us. This season has had less than zero genuine relationships or bonds, and Helen and Jim's very obvious love and affection for one another was a rare, much-needed antidote.

The immunity challenge arrives, and my favorite segment occurs. This has been such a heartless season, which means I wasn't exactly astonished when Jeff said they could have no contact with family members at the reward. When Jeff brought the gang back out for the immunity, that was the one moment I was actually surprised, and touched. Maybe the tears and hysterics were sappy, or mushy, but they were certainly moving and a brief shift away from the predictable mechanics of the actual game.

With help from his brother, who appeared to be a professional Gervase impersonator, Ted won the challenge. Therefore, Jake is toast, and he slathers butter on himself as he goes on about the great experience he's had and that he doesn't care he's leaving. (Translation: I can't wait to get the hell away from these people.) I thought the editors weren't even going to bother pretending Jake was leaving, but they tried with some hasty, transparent scenes of Helen and Brian muttering about getting rid of Clay. Sure.

TC passes forgettably, and voting begins. Bye-bye Jake, 5-1. Jeff, for no apparent reason, notes that he was surprised by such a neat vote given the last 3 days. I guess Jeff's twin brother Jif was running the season 4 TC where Robert was voted out 5-1 the day after the family visit.

As soon as Jake's vote wasn't shown, I knew that he had voted for Jan and that he was history. The only suspense left was to wonder whether or not Brian's voting comment was going to be yet another of his awful time-share-salesman clichés. Sure enough, he decides to give a lecture on "positivity". I sighed in relief, because for a second there I thought he might actually be original or witty, and then I'd have to go clean up all that pig waste in my front yard. Combining this and his remarks to the jury about voting out the person based on their past behavior/mistakes, Brian again challenges Richard and Jerri for most condescending, most self-righteous Survivor ever. He loses though, because at least you could love to hate them. The most I can do for Brian is look for an oil can. I don't know what puzzles me more: That so many fans worship him as a god and are convinced that he is a strategic, sociological, and comedic genius, or that the other players all think he's their best friend and are giving him the million. Calling Brian a strategic mastermind is like calling Kim Johnson a challenge whiz - they lucked out because the people around them were inept. In Kim's case, it was due to illness and producer error. In Brian's case, it's due to being handed a team of self-involved dim bulbs. I know the jury won't care about his blatant, condescending remarks, or his constant satisfied smirk, because that would involve having a brain. If they had a brain, they wouldn't have been on the jury to begin with. Normally I wouldn't say that, but these 3 deserve special mention.

Sook Jai were the worst tribe to date, and hopefully the worst tribe in the lifespan of the show. Every mistake you can name, they made it. They broke their backs over a shelter and shrugged off food and water. Simple personality conflicts were made into justifications to vote out the strong, instead of problems which could have been easily fixed. Most or all of the team apparently barely spoke to each other, preferring to huddle in tiny groups and plot the demise of outsiders. Key members decided that throwing immunities and weeding out the mentally and physically strong as early as possible was the most important idea, because hey, things like winning challenges and going into the merge at an advantage are less important than committing hari-kiri to preserve a final 4 that is weeks and weeks away. Never have I seen such a pathetic, self-defeating bunch, and that includes Maraamu and Samburu. Even without the no-merge, they were going to be wiped out by Shii Ann jumping to CG, because Sook Jai had preferred to count the mythical million instead of working on simple, crucial friendships with each other. Jake may have been a wonderful man, far more classy and kind than most of the Chuay Gahn drones he is leaving behind. But he, like all the others in the power core of Sook Jai, played terribly. They are losers. Brian, as repulsive as he is to me, is not a loser (or at least not on their level), and that's why he is going to have a cakewalk to the million while Sook Jai are holding hands and weeping over what went wrong. As BB2's unforgettable sociopath Shannon liked to say, "Too bad, so sad."

Next week: The love tribe Chuay Gahn begins to fall apart. Clay or Ted or Helen go.

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