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S8 Guest Column:
S8 Guest Column: "The Game to End All Games"
By
2/4/2004
Guest columnist Tedhighway returns with his review of Survivor: All-Stars: Episode 1.
After much anticipation, "Survivor: All-Stars" finally made it's debut. Needless to say, it definitely met my expectations. We have eighteen former contestants out doing battle. The number is up from the usual sixteen competitors, and the tribe numbers are up as well.
We now have three tribes of six instead of the usual two tribes of eight.First we have the Chapera tribe which consists of Alicia Caloway from the Australian Outback, Rob Cesternino from the Amazon, Amber Brkich from the Australian Outback, Big Tom Buchanon from Africa, Sue Hawk from Borneo, and Rob Mariano from the Marquesas.
Then we have the Mogo Mogo tribe which consists of Colby Donaldson from the Australian Outback, Shii Ann Huang from Thailand, Lex van den Berghe from Africa, Jenna Morasca from the Amazon, Richard Hatch from Borneo, and Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien from the Marquesas.
Finally we have the Saboga tribe which consists of Rupert Boneham from the Pearl Islands, Tina Wesson from the Australian Outback, Rudy Boesch from Borneo, Jenna Lewis from Borneo, Ethan Zohn from Africa, and Jerri Manthey
from the Australian Outback.
The tribes arrived by boats and a military escort to their new homes for thirty nine days. The game is taking place in Panama, which was the site for the Pearl Islands.
All three tribes have no knowledge of the other two tribes and can only speculate on who else is there. Quite a few players have adopted new strategies for this go around.
Rich has decided to paint his target even bigger by being obnoxious and not doing any work. Jerri has decided to keep her mouth shut. Rupert has decided to keep a low profile. Finally, Jenna L. has decided to play ruthless.
Jenna Lewis is one of the questionable casting choices, but it's easy to tell that she is there to win. On the original season, she got booted out because her tribe, Pagong, had no alliance structured and the Tagi gang, led by Rich, got rid of them.
Jenna is out to prove to everybody that the Pagongers do know how to play the game. Rupert is a dominating force, but he was a minor player in the premiere episode.
He is laying low this time out. He has obviously learned from his past mistakes and he looks to fix them.
Jerri became known as the "Survivor" black widow. She spoke her mind and caused many irritations.
Now, however, she is not saying a word. She is going with the flow and listening rather than talking. Richard, the original winner, is the top draw, and he likes to make it
known.
Not fifteen minutes into the episode and Rich is already walking around naked. The big man is not making any friends as he get's on everybody's nerves. He doesn't do any work and he is very cocky. Don't count him out yet. Rich is a very intelligent man, and I think he has a something
big in mind.
The immunity challenge brought reactions from the castaways. Everyone got their first chance to see their competition. Rupert gets a nice reaction from the group as he is the newest member of the "Survivor" alumni family.
The immunity challenge itself is a pumped up version of the very first challenge in "Survivor" history, Quest for Fire. The tribes have to unhook their rafts from the water and light torches on their way back to the shore.
While on the beach, they must drag their rafts underneath some obstacles and then cross the finish line. Words really don't do justice to the grueling nature of the challenge.
Chapera manages to come in first, while Mogo Mogo comes in second. Both tribes are given duel immunity and Saboga gets the pleasure of heading to tribal council.
Tina and Ethan beg and plead for their lives as Jenna organizes an alliance against them. Both Tina and Ethan came into the game with huge targets on their backs thanks to being former winners.
There are four winners in the game, Tina, Ethan, Rich, and Jenna M.. All four came into the game with the knowledge that they would be targets. No one wants to see winners win once again. That's a given, however, I'm shocked that no one is displaying the intelligence to take a winner to the
final two. It would almost be a given win.
Tina gets the boot thanks to an uprising against the winners. Rupert was left between two factions, and he took his new alliance partner, Rudy, and they joined in with Jenna L. and Jerri to vote the Tennessee mother out of the game.
Tina Wesson goes from winning to being the first one kicked off. No worries though,............she already has a million dollars.Who's looking good right now: Rupert.
I'm giving Rupert the top position right now for the pure fact of exposure. He is in a great position in Saboga right now, and we really haven't gotten a good look at the inner workings of the other tribes just yet.
Who's looking bad right now: Rudy, Ethan, Sue. Rudy is too old and a major liability. Ethan is a winner on a tribe that targets them. Sue stood out as a bad apple on her tribe. I'll say Rudy goes next.
There are some former contestants I would have loved to see play again. I wish Brian Heidik, winner of Thailand, was out there. Micheal Skupin, burn victim from Australia, deserved another shot.
Finally, Jon Dalton, or Jonny Fairplay, deserved to be there after becoming one of the greatest villains in the show's history. Oh well, hopefully these three will be around for All-Stars 2.
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