Survivor: Cook Islands Wk 8 & 9

Could I be any farther behind regarding Survivor? I suppose I could.

Thanksgiving and other commitments have slowed me, yet, thanks to 21st century technology, I am getting back to business.

When we last saw the group, there were twelve people left from the original twenty. “Flicka” had departed and was the first Caucasian to be booted from the party.

After watching two episodes the other night (and I’m still one behind), three more have been ousted. It is interesting how this season has played.

After seven episodes, if anyone still cares about the race theme introduced at the start of the season, there were four Caucasian’s remaining. There were also four Asians, three African-Americans and only one Latino. The two tribes were evenly matched with six team members apiece.

Jeff threw a new concept into the mix during episode eight. Before the reward challenge, he gave team members ten seconds to decide if they wanted to switch teams. Candice, who wanted to be on the same team as her beloved Adam, switched with two seconds left. Jonathon, who wanted to stay with his beloved Candice, switched right after.

Now we have one tribe with eight members, including four Caucasian’s and another tribe with four.

I won’t bore you with a wild description of the events that were played. Simply put, the team with four members easily whupped the team with eight/seven in four straight events. No real test.

The tide was turning in episode eight. Who was going to be voted off, Candice, Jonathon or Brad? Why Candice or Jonathon? Because they defected from their tribe. Why Brad? Because he wasn’t working as a team member. He “appeared” to be working alone.

Adam, who is an unspoken leader, said “Jonathon or Brad”, keeping his beloved Candice out of harm’s way. Nate, another leader on the tribe, made the mistake of saying he didn’t care which, as long as they were the next two.

Nate was not thinking. If Brad goes, there are four Caucasians and three minorities. Yet, that’s what happened. Brad was sent home because he preferred puzzles to swimming.

In episode nine, when tribe Raro was crumbling in the challenges, it was decided that two would be kicked out at one tribal council. Rebecca was an easy choice. She was weak during the challenges and wasn’t working around camp. Even Nate agreed that Rebecca should go.

The team was surprised by Jeff’s announcement that another tribe member would be voted out. They were expecting a merge. No such luck.

Again, the choice was easy. The Caucasians were not going to vote out one of their own. Nate was strong. Jenny was a girl. Jenny went home, four votes to two.

Now, the Raro tribe has four Caucasians and one African-American. The Aitu tribe has two Asians, one African-American and one Latino.

With no merge in sight, Aitu needs to win the next three immunity challenges to avoid a sweep by the Caucasians. Three are necessary because if Raro loses the next one, Nate will likely go home. Then two more losses will pit two Caucasians against two Asians (and a Latino and an African-American).

After the switch up after week two, we wanted to believe this wasn’t about race anymore. Is that still the case? I’m looking forward to the reunion special. There may be some interesting questions about how the game was played.