The first 2/3 of the "Fans vs. Favorites" edition of Survivor wasn't doing a lot for me, to be honest. The fans weren't especially interesting and the only one who seemed to want to play, Tracy, became marginalized right away. The favorites were somewhat more tolerable, and Cirie will never not be great to watch, but the inclusion of Johnny Fairplay let a bad taste right off, and the premature loss of Yau-Man (wrong side of intertribe alliance, too feared for his reputation for smarts) and Jonathan (injury during poorly designed challenge) took away a couple of the better characters.
The first little hint of intrigue came around the time of the merge, when Parvati decide to put herself at the center of a second solid alliance in her new tribe to go along with the original favorites alliance she had (everyone on that original alliance still being in the game). This isn't something we've seen very often on the show, and it was a surprise to see Parvati, basically an empty (bathing) suit in the Cook Islands, being the one to pull it off. We assumed that at some point Parvati would be forced to choose an alliance, or would be able to use one as an escape pod when one alliance got the upperhand, but instead we saw something very different: she and Cirie engineered the ouster of Ozzy while still keeping the overall trust of Amanda, the other member of that original alliance and someone who was completely left out (wisely) of the Ozzy plot.
Ozzy leaving seemed like one of the epic moments in recent Survivor history, but little did we know it would touch off the greatest sustained run of memorable tribal councils in 16 seasons--an incredible accomplishment. Jason (who had foolishly quit the immunity challenge the week before and was saved only because Cirie and Parvait became more interested in Ozzy) failed to play his individual immunity idol, even though he had to have known how vulnerable he was and stood a very good chance of winning future individual immunities had he used the idol the week he didn't have it. Then Amanda, who was becoming a target due to her likability, fooled everyone except Parvati by playing individual immunity and engineering the boot of Alexis, who had sent her to exile island in the first place. Finally, and most inexplicably, the remaining four women convinced Erik that his only chance with the jury was to "redeem himself" (for what was never explained) by giving away the individual immunity idol to Natalie, who then proceeded to vote him out along with the rest. Erik has thus gone down in reality show infamy, a cruel fate for someone who apparently cares more about winning the approval of Survivor contestants more than is really healthy.
One would assume the excitement is just about over, and it's hard to sense who might have the upperhand in tonight's finale, though I don't think Natalie has much of a shot. Erik and Jason would never vote for her, and I doubt any of the favorites would support her over one of their own. In fact, I don't know why Cirie and Natalie weren't more genuinely interested in the phony deal they presented to Erik (the three of us vote out Parvati). There was apparently a little concern about Parvati either having the individual immunity idol or giving it to Amanda, but if I'm Natalie that's a chance I'm willing to take, because I suspect she's finishing fourth unless she wins the last immunity challenge (and I think Amanda will be favored to win this, as she won it in China). For Cirie's part, I think she would win in a trio with Natalie and Erik, and possibly with one of these two plus Parvati, but I don't think she can beat Amanda. Cirie too could be in for a fourth place finish (although I think she's a lock to win the fan vote for the $100,000).
At any rate, Amanda looks like the favorite to win tonight, which is interesting because many found her to be downcast when she appeared on the China season finale. Little did any of us know she had made her second straight final four (at least), and is one tribal council away from becoming the first person to play the game twice and never be voted out.
A few other tidbits:
* The game would have been very different had Jonathan not been to injured to go on and Kathy not followed behind him. That tribe never lost an immunity challenge after the player switch, but they went into the merge with no numbers advantage. It's likely that Parvati would have found herself marginalized had Jonathan and Kathy not left, but when they did, she took advantage and hooked herself up with Alexis and Natalie. (And as we've found out the last few weeks, Alexis and Natalie weren't nonentities as much as we weren't learning much about them because they spent several weeks not going to tribal council.)
* Ozzy's first time playing the game didn't really provide him with much Survivor experience, because he was hardly ever in any jeopardy, losing individual immunity only once. Although he lost the first 2 individual immunity challenges to Jason this time around, he certainly figured to win his share had he just stayed in the game, which is why I can't understand how he could have been so casual about the individual immunity idol, which he never once carried with him to tribal council. He seemed to think that because he was in an alliance, everyone would just stand back and let him win the cash. He forgot he was in an alliance with Cirie.
* And regarding our favorite nurse: the thing that makes her a great Survivor player is that while so many always say "It's a game, nothing personal," she really means it. Everything with her is a means to an end; all relationships are about trying to get her closer to the money. She's a lot like Richard Hatch in that respect. All she does is think about ways to get ahead in the game, and she has antennae for opportunities and potential fractures to exploit that are absolutely uncanny. If only some more of the so-called fans had anything like the same game skills.
