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Why does there always seem to be one tribe on Survivor that just can’t seem to get their act together? No matter where they are, and no matter if they pick their own teams, they’re pre-determined, it’s men against women, fans against favorites, whatever, there’s always a team that just doesn’t get it. The seventeenth season of Survivor doesn’t appear to be any different.

Even from when they we picking their teams it didn’t make any sense. Granted, looking at Crystal, she definitely looked to be the strongest of the females, but when you’re an older woman that will have a hard time pulling your own weight on the team, you need to pick a big strong guy, for appearances even more than actual team dynamics. And who did Crystal in turn pick? Susie, a heavier 47 year old woman, with the excuse the moms had to stick together.

So now you have two people on your team who probably aren’t strong and probably aren’t fast, out of three. The team was kind of doomed from that point. Don’t get me wrong, I was always on the short end of the stick myself in the gym class you-pick-the-teams game, always being picked last, and while I hated it, I knew why I was there. By the end, no only do they have the oldest female, but they also have two people in their 40s.

This left no one in charge of the team. No one was willing to step up and be the leader. Randy, the oldest man at 49, had decided to sit back and let everyone else make mistakes, and the youngest male, Ken, at 22, is also the smallest male and shy. Who does he choose to build an alliance with? Michelle, the smallest female. Neither of these two could keep the other safe and neither will be accepted as the leader.

The first two people on the team, Gillian and Crystal, struggled to get to the top of the climb for the very first challenge, losing the extra food they could have won. Two people had to drag up Gillian, the elder of their team. She doesn’t do anything once they get to their camp to take on leadership, and does things the younger people find weird, alienating her some. Her big contribution when they start to set up camp is to find elephant dung and search through it, suggesting maybe there would be something edible in there. Now they all just see her as the kooky old lady.

By the time the team got to the immunity challenge, they were still in disarray. No one was willing to step up to the plate and take charge. For a challenge that required some early athleticism and later intelligence, they put the two oldest people on the team and the heaviest person on the intelligence end to figure out the puzzle. They weren’t the smartest, just the least physically fit in the eyes of the others. Why not put Ken, the gamer over there? It didn’t matter, as the other people didn’t have the necessary skills to dig and find the puzzle pieces.

When it came to vote someone off, they made the best choice. They voted off Michelle, the smallest female and someone who walked around complaining of being cold and wearing someone’s suit coat. She acted miserable out there and gave them no reason to keep her. They also, with Jeff Probst’s help, chose a leader for their team. But instead of choosing wisely, they all just put the responsibility on the same person, GC, just to be sure it wasn’t them.

GC didn’t want the responsibility to begin with, so when the others didn’t always fall in line with what he wanted, he was quick to denounce the responsibility. He and Randy got into an argument over where to get the water. I wasn’t sure what Randy was getting at either, and didn’t understand what he meant about boiling the water twice. Gillian argued with GC, wanting to set up time periods during the night when no one was allowed to talk. Why would you stick your nose out at this point and challenge the others’ whole social game? She should have sucked it up and kept her mouth shut, and just laid there not being able to sleep.

This led them to another challenge, a combination immunity and reward, and Ken did great stepping up to the plate to untie the knots quickly, but Gillian disappeared. They were telling her to get out of the way when they were rolling the big heavy ball. She wanted to help, but couldn’t seem to keep up, so it was slowing them down. They made it close, but they lost yet again, their third in a row.

Something amazing happened after this as they finally started to come together as a team. Randy, who had wanted to stay in the background and let others make mistakes, dismantled his eyeglasses and made a fish hook. Ken and GC fished together and brought back not all the food they needed, but enough to raise morality on their team. Dan had been sent to Exile Island and missed out on that great bonding everyone was doing, and paranoia set in to suggest maybe he had the hidden immunity idol.

It all came too late, though, as they still had to eliminate someone else. Some wanted to vote out Dan, because they wanted to get rid of the idol. Honestly, that would be extremely short-sighted. Why get rid of one of your stronger males, just to fish out an idol that you have no proof he has? In the end the strength and unity they had begun to show back at camp shone through, and they eliminated the only choice at this time, Gillian.

It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here. They’ve eliminated dead weight on their team and have begun to show unity, so hopefully that will help them in challenges. They don’t need a leader, per se, if they can all determine some roles for themselves. Randy’s move with the fish hook could carry him far in the game. He gave up something he needed in order to give everyone the food they needed. I like his odds now much better than I did before the game, just looking at his standoffish personality.

Let’s see how they do next week. Let’s see if they can stop from losing anyone else until the probable team realignment.

Photos courtesy of CBS

For more on Survivor: Gabon, see SirLinksalot: Survivor Gabon.

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