Survivor: Gabon, Episode Six -- Elephant!

With much of the season's focus thus far on the struggling Fang tribe -- typically the 12 minutes of the show that airs after the Immunity Challenge exclusively features the losing tribe -- Ace has remained a major part of the footage that makes it to air. He competed with Marcus for attention when both were on the Kota Tribe, but now that he's on Fang, it seems to be the Ace show, for better or worse. He seems marginally more likeable now, if only because he's surrounded by a group of contestants depicted even more negatively than he is (with the possible exception of Matty).

Ace was a big part of this episode, and the most memorable part of it, for me, involved him. But it probably isn't the part you'd think it is. It was the scene where, were this a play, you'd say Ace had either "broken the fourth wall" or broken character. Ace is giving a confessional, talking strategy with a producer (who stands behind the camera, giving the impression Ace is talking directly to viewers), when behind him an elephant loudly plunges into the river. Startled, Ace turns around to see what the distraction is, then grins and talks over a producer (a rare instance of us hearing the voice of someone behind the camera).

"I'm in a very good position, coming from a tribe that I didn't have any alliance with, and now suddenly, you know I've got people there -- oh my God, this is amazing, I've just turned around and there's an elephant swimming in the water. Oh how beautiful. I guess that's one way to get from one side to the other."

This is a jarring moment as a TV viewer, because even though Survivor is shot in documentary style, and is "reality," it's so edited and packaged that the end product is, while not "fake," not exactly reality either. We get lulled into forgetting this is being filmed, that it's TV -- so when a, for lack of a better term, really real reality intrudes, it causes some momentarily weirdness. There's people behind the cameras? What? Ace's tone changed from slightly sinister to laughing and amazed? What happened to his game face?

Indeed, for a few seconds, Ace wasn't a reality TV contestant, but a human being.

This column wouldn't be complete without a mention of what I'm sure everyone who still cares about Survivor will be talking about tomorrow: The sheer naivete of Sugar. She makes Jenna and Colleen look like Richard Hatch. Okay, first she makes no effort to hide the *hidden* immunity idol (see that word there in asterisks, Sugar? Hidden? Hint hint!) even though contestants on Survivor have a history of snooping in one another's bags for such items. Hide it, Sugar! Goodness! Second, she hands it over to Ace without him even asking (OK, sure, he was seemingly asking for it by not asking, but still, come on!) Worst of all, out of nowhere she ups and tells Ken that she gave Ace the idol. Wha-wha-what? She did this as casually as you'd tell a friend what you had for dinner last night. I don't know if Ken was more surprised that she gave away her idol or if she TOLD him she gave it away. Ace seems like a decent strategist so far, but he's sure picked a dim-bulb companion. I wonder if in real life, she tells anyone who asks her Social Security number?

And oh yeah, I was going to talk about last week's episode, which aired while I was on vacation and which I only got around to watching tonight. Ummm. How bout that cool Immunity Challenge with the blindfolds, shields, giant balls and baskets? It was like life-sized Plinko. Fun!

Catching up is hard to do

I've returned from a vacation, during which I planned to keep up with "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" but did not succeed! I'll combine commentary of the episodes I missed with whatever I post about the next episode.

Just wanted my five readers to know . . .

Amazing Race, Episode 3: A DVR-free update

I'm writing this with a bit of a handicap, since I don't have access to my trusty DVR this week and ergo couldn't rewatch any of Sunday's broadcast. So this will be a wee bit brief. But today's exciting topic: Suspense!

A lot of folks who watch TAR often complain about two things: first, "bunching," wherein the trailing teams catch up to the leading ones due to layovers, sleepovers, required locations being closed, etc. There's pros and cons to this whole thing, and, well, it's such that maybe I'll talk about that another week. But the second complaint is how if Team A is clearly leading and Team B is clearly trailing, and the show then tries to build suspense regarding which team will arrive at a certain location first, Team A pretty much always does anyway.

I guess I can't blame them for trying to build suspense. If they made it obvious who was ahead as the Pit Stop loomed, things would get boring. And we also don't want them to just mess with the order of the editing to the point where they're deliberately misleading viewers as to who is where. So there we are.

In any case, Sunday's episode appeared to have a couple exceptions to this trend. First, we had about six teams at once heading from a Detour to what would be a strange Roadblock involving acted-out wrestling matches. The show turned on the "suspense" music as we watched to see who would emerge from this pack to gain an advantage at the Roadblock. Oddly, it was Toni and Dallas, who I think were about in sixth place leaving the Detour. Now suddenly they're in second?! In fact the order of arrival was quite scrambled, it seemed, compared to when they left the finish of the Detour.

The other exception was this: OK, sure, it seemed like Kelly and Christy weren't *that* far behind Team Geek and ergo unlikely to be eliminated given the latter duo's untimely error. But it was hard to say. Sometimes, you can tell how far behind the last team is racing to a Pit Stop due to how light it is outside. If Team A is in a cab and it's broad sunlight out, and Team B is in a cab and it looks like dusk, well there's your tipoff. But since the key part of this Roadblock occurred inside, it was harder to tell. And other times, you can tell who's ahead by the obviousness of who left an area first. But in this case, we already knew the Nerds were at the Pit Stop. Kelly and Christy were racing against time. Would they make it?

At any rate, this for me made for a more exciting evening. The other main development was the continued portrayal of Nick and Starr as the baddies, this time with emphasis on Starr, who asked (although I wasn't sure if she was serious) Team Michigan to "U-Turn" Kelly and Christy, then debated doing it herself, although Nick got her not to (note he made the decision, or at least was shown doing so). Nick also made nice with the two ladies after a Pit Stop incident: Kelly (or was it Christy, I get them confused) accused Starr of knocking her bra off a windowpane (something like that, again, no DVR to peruse). That seemed pretty weird to accuse someone of -- did Kelly/Christy have much in the way of evidence? Personally I thought it made them look silly.

Survivor Gabon, Episode 4: Ladies First

The gender gap on Survivor: Gabon is glaring.

Women were dismissed at each of the first four Tribal Councils – and have received 30 out of 33 total votes cast at Tribal Councils thus far.

In the first episode, the contestants picked their own tribes without regard to gender. Men on average were picked before women, but not by a big margin. Out of 16 contestants picked, ala gym class, the men were chosen a tad more quickly – although three of the first four picked were women, the next four were all men; three of the last four not picked were women.

Then on tonight’s episode, all the members of each tribe ranked themselves from most to least valuable. On Kota, amazingly, the four men were ranked first through fourth (with the gay male in fourth). The four women were fifth through eighth – and they were 50 percent of the vote!

Fang was little better. They’ve already voted out two of their women, leaving only two. Crystal, who is very strong and secretly an Olympic champion, could do no better than fourth. I’m guessing she preferred the medal stand in Athens to the podium she was stuck on tonight.

All in all, out of eight placements on each tribe, the men had an average ranking of 3.0, the women 6.2. Ouch. Another schoolyard pick ‘em followed, with the rankings influencing the order of selection somewhat. Players could again choose whomever they wanted. Four of the first five picked were men.

So, what’s going on? Sexism? With such a small sample and selective editing, there’s no real way to tell. From the perspective that you want as physically strong a tribe as possible, and stereotypically men are more physically strong than women, perhaps it makes sense, unfair as that may be. And by my count, the history of Survivor shows that woman are indeed more vulnerable than men early on. Here’s the gendered breakdown of the first four Tribal Council victims each season:

• Four women, zero men: This has happened three times now. Oddly it's all been pretty recent seasons -- this season and on Survivor: Fiji and Panama Exile Island.

• Three women, one man: This has happened four times, including the show’s premiere season.

• Two women, two men: This has happened seven times, including the two seasons featuring all-male and all-female tribes, which conveniently cancels those groupings out.

• One woman, three men: This has happened three times, all since Season 8, All-Stars.

• Zero women, four men: This has not yet happened.

This isn’t cut and dried, since Jenna wasn't voted out but rather quit on Episode 3 of All-Stars (I didn’t count her). Nor did I count Gary on Fiji, who left after getting ill.

Others, such as the injured Jeff on Palau, ostensibly quit (asking people to vote for him) but didn’t outright do so (so I did count him). In addition, people are voted out for all sorts of reasons, often as much social as physical (for instance, Nicole on Pearl Islands wasn't the weakest on her tribe, but annoyed her fellow castaways by trying to strategize too early). And picking the "first four" as a cutoff is rather arbitrary, admittedly.

But the upshot is clear: If you look at the 68 people who were among the first four voted out in their respective seasons, 41 of them – or 60 percent – were women.

The Amazing Race 13, Episode 2: Bruised Foreheads, Feelings

It seems high stress can bring out not just the worst, but the weirdness in people. Witness, this week, Tina (of Ken and Tina) and Terence (of Terence and Sarah). Last week it seemed Sarah was a bit overly sensitive, and we see that briefly tonight with her complaint that the other two teams at an airport ticket line “didn’t even say hi!” But this week she’s Ms. Rational Behavior compared to Terence, who seems to think that any conversation his partner has with another player constitutes a betrayal. (Ironically, when they arrive at the airport, Sarah wants to run for the ticket counter but Terence pulls back and says “but I want to talk to somebody” – although presumably he means an airport worker.)

Terence also manages to hit his head on the trunk of a cab just as they leave for the leg, and his resulting behavior – getting mad when Sarah says she doesn’t see blood, asking her to blow on his forehead (“I want my head clean, please”) – certainly doesn’t incite sympathy. Who are we to root for? Probably not this team.

Probably not Ken and Tina, either. Tina wins the “weirdo” award of the week. She actually tries to take credit for the airline, which initially had no seats available, switching to a larger aircraft that can fit all the players on it on a flight to Fortaleza, Brazil. Yes, that’s it! It’s all thanks to you! Because the airline surely didn’t know in advance that 40 people (two on each team plus the cameraman and sound person who follow them around) would be seeking last minute tickets!

Bizarrely, Tina goes around mentioning to anyone who will listen that it’s all due to her and that the other teams “owe her one,” and she and Ken even budge to the head of the line to board the plane first. This angers Sarah and Terence, and it’s hard to say who comes off worse in the ensuing, silly confrontation that happens in front of everyone. Later they waste all kinds of time finding a taxi after the Detour.

So, who came off looking good this week? Not Nick and Starr. Nick broke a promise to help out Andrew and Dan at the Roadblock (not that most people would have helped, but still). Marisa and Brooke made one dumb move, going to the wrong Detour than they intended, but they persevered through the draining challenge and survived the episode, if barely (after being second to last in Week One as well). Kelly and Christy confused instructions for one Detour option for the other, costing them time, but this was more amusing than anything and the two were able to laugh it off.

If Tina/Ken and Sarah/Terence are the most negatively depicted (or at least conflict-wridden) teams thus far, who’s gotten the most positive edit? Probably mother Toni and son Dallas, who stopped to tell Sarah and Terence where to find a cab, and middle-aged geeks Mark and Bill, who just seem to be having fun, quote Yoda, quickly solved what could have been a very time-consuming alternate Detour, and waved off the fact that the ultra competitive Tina and Ken flew past them to win the leg and the ATVs that went with it.

As for the episode’s Philimination victims, they didn’t get too positive an edit either. The elimination for this episode is foreshadowed a couple of times: Outside the pit stop, Anthony and Stephanie run up to a cabbie who’s apparently pushing his car (“Is it a staller?”). Similarly, when they arrive in Fortaleza, Anthony takes it upon himself to help get a cab rolling, yelling at the driver to pump the clutch. Meanwhile, everyone else is driving away, and so the team drops back. They struggle the rest of the way, and of course get the boot at the end. But not before, riding along and commenting about the apparent squalor of the area, Stephanie wonders aloud what sorts of opportunities the city residents might have, and Anthony replies, “If they learn how to fix a car, they’d probably make it rich.”

This is a far cry from former players such as Kendra making racially tinged statements while visiting African nations, but the entire framing of this team, particularly in this episode, sure won’t make many people sorry to see them go.

Survivor Gabon, Episode 3: Ace's High...for Now

It’s always fun to see how Survivor’s expert editors construct the narrative of each episode. Who are the “main characters”? What’s emphasized in terms of the “plot”? Naturally we never know what’s left on the cutting-room floor (except for any online bonus footage, which to me doesn’t qualify as the ‘text’ as the show), but there’s practically always a suspense plot on “Survivor” (who will get voted out?), and when they can find one, an emotional plot as well.

This week we had both, and despite the G.C./Randy sideshow over on the resurgent Fang, both major plot elements involved Kota.Our initial look at that tribe this week showed the Onion alliance (Corinne, Jen, Charlie, Marcus) fishing as Charlie narrates and explains the tribal dynamics. There’s the Onions, there’s Paloma/Kelly, there’s Ace/Sugar, and there’s Bob, who is seen as “wooable” to get a majority at Tribal Council if need be. Right away we see Paloma and Kelly complaining about Ace: “He’s like the king and everyone’s bowing down to him” mutters Paloma. And Sugar and Ace note the “conniving” Paloma and Kelly.

ace made a power play at the Reward Challenge by manipulating Paloma, clearly the tribe’s physically weakest member, into screwing up. He directed her to play a key role in a challenge, gave her bad advice about how to perform, then blamed her for the tribe’s loss and pushed for her to be voted out. “I think her lack of motivation…sort of crossed and dotted the t’s on her contract of death,” he told the camera (it’s the i that you dot, Ace, the i).

But Ace isn’t as good as he thinks he is, since practically everyone saw his ploy for what it was. More on that in a bit.

Note that Ace, who is quickly being framed as this season’s main villain, is paired with Sugar, who received a highly sympathetic portrait Thursday night even if she remains a touch naïve. Sugar, sent to Exile Island after the reward challenge, broke down while reflecting that she went on the show to try to recover from her father’s death. This tape of her getting emotional – seemingly recorded either before or after her trip to Exile Island, given her clothing – serves as a counterpoint to her search for the Hidden Immunity Idol. After nearly giving up at first – “I’m lost,” she cries just before the emotional recounting of her parent’s passing begins – Sugar finds a series of clues, traipses across what seems like a couple miles of jungle, plain and stream, and strikes gold in the form of the hidden idol. The editors purposely tug at our heartstrings. By juxtaposing this search with her tragic story, we’re led to clearly root for Sugar and cheer when she succeeds.

Too bad she’s paired with such an apparent jerk in Ace. We aren’t supposed to like him, and although the other tribe members discuss dumping him, they ultimately do vote out Paloma (note that the Onion alliance could have easily sided with her and voted out Ace, had they wanted to). Hello, audience displeasure.

But Paloma’s dismissal, for at least two reasons, makes sense: First, physical strength is what’s important now, and the last thing the Onions need is another trip to Tribal next week. Ace provides that. He also provides something else: future cannon fodder. They can get rid of him next time if they need to – just join up with whoever Ace is targeting and get rid of him on a 5-3 vote. Or, if they decide to oust Kelly or even Sugar at the next Tribal, they can just do him with their four-vote majority once seven people are left in the tribe.

However, a swap of tribe members seems to happen every season now and is likely inevitable. So that could work in Ace’s favor by spreading the Onioners – who frankly seem like they’ll last, but what do I know – across two tribes. But if there for some reason isn’t a swap, or the switching is minimal, then Ace could soon find himself in a hole.