Survivor: Philippines, Ep. 6 - Stalemate

This episode was not the producers' finest hour.

First, they designed an unwinnable reward challenge.  What will the challenge be next week?  Tic-Tac-Toe?

Second, they earnestly tried to paint a picture where Katie might not be going home in order to create drama that simply did not exist.  That vote was a slam dunk.

Early in the program, they showed Katie arguing to Denise to vote off Penner.  Denise wasn't buying any of it.  I know they showed Kent and Carter waffling and debating on ousting Penner.  No sale for this viewer.  I think Kent debates about voting out Penner every day...  [Strike that - not strong enough] I think Kent debates voting out Penner every hour of every day.  He can't wait to blindside that guy.  But, at this point, the argument to get rid of Penner does not exist.  If there's no merge, you still need Penner in the challenges.  If there is a merge, you need him as the first target for the other tribe, and you still need his immunity idol if you want to pull something.  Voting Penner out now would have been a complete waste.  Sure, Kent debated it (with himself - Carter just watched), but Kent wasn't going to do it (this time).

As for the deal made at the challenge - all you saw was a lot of unhappy people.  How can you make a trade where most on both sides hated the swap?  My Econ 101 professor might answer that this is the inefficiencies of a barter system and why currencies developed.  But, I think the answer is this:  there are a lot of people who dislike Penner and Skupin, and this was an excuse to go off on them.

That challenge was a nightmare.  The deal made sense.  Stop your whining.  It couldn't have been bad for both tribes?  Frankly, I don't think it was bad for either one since they are so close to a merge.  Ending the challenge was the prize and the real winners were the ones on the sidelines who didn't have to exert any energy in the trench warfare.

One note of clarification: of couse it's possible to make a deal that both sides absolutely hate (see The Compromise of 1850, which destroyed the Whig Party and led to the Civil War).  But, this was a friggin' swap of food.  Get over it.  Abi used that deal as an excuse to bitch.

Other stuff:

-  Why can Malcolm almost single-handedly win challenges on his new tribe, but not for his old?  Is it because Russell's not around?

-  Having said that, Lisa really did contribute to the win with her shot placement.  She also (again) neutralized Denise in the reward challenge (it helps that she outweighs her by 40 lbs.).  Lisa is actually in a decent position right now.

-  Before tribal council, Carter said to Penner: "Katie or Penner?"  Sharp.

In the last review I said I would handicap the field soon.  It looks like a merge is coming, so before the next episode would be a good time.  I'm not sure if the Halloween Hurricane, Sandy, is going to be The Tempest or Much Ado About Nothing, but references to the Bard aside, I expect the storm to clear out some of my schedule early this week, allowing me to handicap the field before Wednesday.