Survivor BBB: Episode 3 Notes

This episode is not as entertaining or intriguing as the first two episodes. The most interesting part of the episode is the discussion of throwing a challenge. I have a strong opinion on the matter that I will discuss later.  Next, the Brains tribe is possibly the worst tribe in the history of Survivor. Fortunately for them and us, they will cease to be a tribe soon.

Tribes

Beauty

After finishing in third place in the immunity challenge and going to tribal council last week, the Beauty tribe came back with a vengeance this week. They finished first in the reward challenge and in the immunity challenge. Since Brice was voted off in the last tribal council, Morgan knows she is next on the chopping block. Accordingly, I like how she calls Jeremiah out for betraying his alliance with Brice and her in front of the rest of the tribe. It puts Jeremiah on the spot for being involved in two alliances. On the side, Morgan also tells the other tribe members that Jeremiah came up with the idea to vote out LJ. However, she notes that he told Brice and Morgan to target Alexis instead because they need LJ to win the challenges. Morgan was very calm in disclosing this plot to the other tribe members. In reality, it was the plan Brice and her came up with to vote out Alexis but she is pinning it on Jeremiah. Nevertheless, she sells the story and is believable even though her tribe mates suspect that she is scrambling to save herself. Obviously, the first thing you think about Morgan is her beauty. However, do not underestimate her game play. She has done well considering LJ put a target on her back as soon as the game started.

Brawn

Sarah has completely committed to the Cop ‘R Us alliance with Tony. It is a shame because she is a very intelligent person that is allowing herself to be duped by her blind loyalty to Tony simply because he is another cop. He lied to her that Cliff and Lindsey are plotting to get her out. As Cliff and Lindsey are always together and close, it just feeds into Sarah’s paranoia and misperception created by Tony’s lie. She recruits Woo to join her alliance with Tony and Trish so they can form a dominant 4 person alliance that can move against Cliff. Woo is a NBA and Cliff Robinson fan. Although he could have been star struck, it showed game savvy for him to be able to separate what is best for him in the game, staying with the majority alliance, rather than try to be loyal to a childhood hero. Back to Sarah, she is so concerned with Cliff being against her that she tries to tell her alliance to throw a challenge so that they can vote Cliff out. I completely disagree with ever trying to throw a challenge. While some may say it is bad karma and will incur the wrath of the Survivor gods, it just makes no strategic sense. If you need to get rid of a player, you can always try to handle it when you lose a challenge and need to go to tribal council. There is no logic I can think of to support that a tribe is better off losing the challenge to vote out a member rather than winning and forcing the other tribe to vote a member. It is always to your advantage that the other tribe loses a person. Sarah is a very sharp individual. However, it shows how clever Tony is to use her loyalty to other cops against her. In terms of Tony, he is the villain this season but he is a fun villain. There is nothing nasty about his game play. He understands it is just a game and he is playing within the rules of the game. He does not make it personal. He is just trying to be strategic and make moves that are best for him. More importantly, he is a very entertaining player to watch.

Brains

The Brains tribe is one of the worst tribes in the history of Survivor. In the reward challenge, they build a big lead for second place but blew it and the Brawn tribe won the second reward. As we know from the first episode, J’Tia dumped most of their rice. Accordingly, it is critical that the Brain tribe win food. In the immunity challenge, Spencer did everything he could to try to win it for the Brains. Unfortunately for him, he received no help from his tribe. Even though the Brawn tribe tried to throw the challenge, the Brain tribe still lost. The end task is shooting a ball in a basket. Once Cliff Robinson receives the balls from his tribe to shoot, you know it is over. He is a former professional basketball player and there is no way anyone in the Brain tribe is going to outshoot him. After losing the challenge, the Brain tribe returns to tribal council. The decision is between voting out Spencer or J’Tia, who dumped most of the rice and has performed poorly in the challenges. In my opinion, she should have been voted out first. The Brain tried played too hard, too fast and voted out two of their stronger members. It was self sabotage. Kass and Tasha weigh J’Tia’s loyalty against Spencer’s plus in the challenges. In the end, the choice is clear. They need to win challenges and Spencer gives them the best opportunity.

Spencer looks like he could have been a very good player. Unfortunately, he was put on a disaster of a tribe. Tasha also looks like a good player. However, she fought to be the leader of the tribe and weakened it to do so. However, we will not have to watch the Brains tribe much longer. There is some type of switch that will end the Brains, Beauty, Brawn theme. I personally do not like that they are switching things up so quickly. It has only been three episodes. If CBS was trying to prove which attribute is most important, we still do not know because they are dissolving the theme already.

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