“I have a nickname: Chatterbox.” – Wendy
It’s 21 seasons in if you can believe, and another Survivor campaign begins. And this is a new gang that doesn’t include the likes of Coach and Boston Rob and Russell, which seems a bit refreshing in of itself.
The location of the game seems to have less import these days – this is Survivor: Nicatagua but could easily be Survivor: Random Exotic Beach – leaving rule changes and casting as the main ingredients to keep things spicy and crispy.
In terms of casting, the show added its first bona fide household name who did not earn his or her celebrity from the show itself: former Super Bowl winning NFL coach Jimmy Johnson. Being famous and an elder statesman in a game typically dominated by youngsters would make you think that Johnson would be an easy target for early elimination, but he was helped for the time being at the least by an initial tribal split that went along age lines: those 30 and younger formed the Le Flor tribe while cast members 40 and above became tribe Espada. Johnson also made a fairly good pitch stating that he is in the game for adventure and knows that a tribal council will not award him with a million dollars, so he simply wants to help someone else win.
With 20 cast members going at it in the early going, it’s always a little difficult to get a read on many, but a few stood out. On Le Flor, blond haired and goofy Jud was quickly dubbed “Fabio,” which may be to his advantage if he has the others convinced that he’s an ineffectual non-threat. That said, his strategic skills do seem to be non-existent at this point. Meanwhile, Chase and Shannon seemed to have a Flintstones-era outlook on gender and the world i.e. men good, women bad, food good, fire bad (very bad).
Over on Espada, Jimmy T. immediately popped out as the guy most likely to rival Coach’s Most Hated status in the early going. When he started going off on one strange soliloquy or another I thought: How much do you think the show’s casting agents frothed at the mouth when this loud, emotional, cocky, semi-obnoxious guy showed up? Other than that most of the attention was on Johnson, while Yve began a campaign of manipulation and deceit straight away.
I really like the major rule change this season thus far, which is the introduction of the “medallion of power.” Essentially, while one tribe holds the medallion, they have the ability to get a major advantage in the elimination challenge. However, once they exercise that power, the medallion then gets passed to the other tribe. If nothing else, it’s nice to see the era of Exile Island over and done with for the time being.
Le Flor held the medallion of power initially after finding it on the beach during the game opening challenge. However, they relinquished it after being tempted with flint to make fire and a whole bunch of fishing gear. Espada then decided to forego using the medallion during the first elimination challenge, which involved pouring water down a series of troughs held together by team members to fill up buckets, which then led to the release of puzzle pieces.
The advantage would have allowed Espada to hold a one bucket lead (of five) and could well have given them the win. However, the younger Le Flor kids took the victory. At tribal council, it was very clear that as soon as Wendy the goat rancher (who sounds like she’s from the south side of Boston?) opened her mouth, everyone was itching to kick her off the beach, if not the planet. And so it was as six of the first seven votes cast were for her to exit. The self-described Chatterbox shall chatter on national television no more.
More thoughts on this week’s Survivor:
* The La Flor dance. Jeff Probst summed it up perfectly: “Okay.”
* It’s pretty amazing to see the gusto with which Jeff Probst still can holler, “Older tribe releases their puzzle pieces!” after 21 seasons
* Jimmy Johnson looked like he aged about 40 years between the beginning of the episode and tribal council.
* “I have a nickname: Chatterbox.” – Wendy
* I’m pretty sure that Espada is supposed to be for those 40 and over. Is Yve really older than that?
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.