Oct 03 2008
Survivor - Editing Tips Its Hat Too Early
I think Mark Burnett is slipping. I’ve always said that one of the reasons I like Survivor is the great editing by Mark Burnett. The guy knows how to tell a story using nothing but the equipment found in the editing room. Yet tonight, I couldn’t help but think he totally blew it. I knew exactly who was going to win the immunity challenge based on the editing.
After our first two hours of Survivor last week, we barely knew anyone on Kota based on them staying away from the tribal council. While they were definitely running the game, their wins meant more focus was put on Fang, since they were sent to face Jeff Probst and his flame snuffer. Yet, still enough time was spent on both tribes so that I wasn’t tipped of as to which way the immunity challenge was going.
Tonight, we started by seeing Fang come back from tribal council, just like we see every week. Leading up to the reward challenge, we saw a little of what was going on in each tribe. We saw GC still doing his prima donna routine, while Randy does what he can to conserve rice, suggesting they reduce their eating to only two meals a day. GC pouted, saying others wasted the rice the first day, and he’s not about to do without. It’s Survivor. They’re lucky to have two meals a day, going by normal Survivor standards. Randy suggests GC is a cancer they need to get rid of. We start to wonder if we’ll see them at tribal council once again.
Editing switches us to Kota who are catching fish. They show us the tribal alliance breakdown. There’s one alliance of four, possibly five, between Charlie, Marcus, Corinne, and Jacque, with them wanting to add Bob as a fifth in a voting block. We see that Ace and Sugar are tight together, and there is a mutual dislike between Ace and Paloma. The others float in wherever they can.
At the reward challenge, Ace thought he was playing it safe, having the three women that are the strongest on the team sit out, so that they could play in the immunity challenge where it really mattered. However, this was a challenge where strength mattered above anything, as they pulled each other off poles and across a line. Obviously only one of the two challenges are going to be based on strength. How do you put Paloma on a pole, needing to be strong? The only thing worse would be if Michelle were still there and Fang had put her on the pole. Fang won easily since they had sat their weakest member, Ken, out.
With Fang’s win, they send Sugar to exile island. She thinks it’s because they think she’s dumb, but after last week, we know it’s because they’re looking for the person they think will choose comfort over the immunity idol. Had they seen a bird’s eye view into Kota, they’d know they should have sent Paloma, as she was the one sittng around doing nothing at camp. Led by her father’s spirit, Sugar finds the Idol, as we see her whole long process. A lot of time was spent on her finding this, so we know it’ll be important.
We see just a few seconds of Fang back at their camp, enjoying their win, then it’s back to Kota where Corinne approaches Bob, asking him to be their fourth, while he accepts. They discuss that there are two people that need to leave, Sugar and Paloma, and it doesn’t really matter who leaves first. They know that Ace will protect Sugar, wanting to take her to the end with him, knowing he’s the one person he has on his side indefinitely.
Sugar is reunited with her tribe at the tribal council and plays it all off like it was such a terrible thing she couldn’t endure. As the immunity challenge starts, six peole take place in a relay. We know that Cheryl has this one. Little does anyone know this woman that couldn’t make it up the hill on day one is a gold medalist from the 2004 Olympics in relay. She builds a sizable lead, yet Susie loses that lead and Kota catches up.
Once the relays are finished and it’s to the puzzle stage, pitting the gamer against the physics teacher, it suddenly hit me how it was going to go. I knew Ken was going to win this for Fang. Editing had tipped its hat between the reward challenge and immunity challenge. We knew nothing about how Fang was lined up for a vote, but we knew not only how Kota was lined up, but also that the possible vote-getters would be Paloma and Sugar.
The only question was which one would leave and if Sugar would use the Idol. Sugar told Ace about it, and he told her to keep bringing it to tribal councils anyway, but they knew they wouldn’t need it. Meanwhile, everyone started discussing taking Ace out now, because they knew he would take Sugar to final two, and maybe it was a better idea to take him, a stronger player, out now and worry about her later.
That was the only place where editing kept us in suspense. We knew exactly who was winning the challenge and going to tribal council, but up until the vote, we weren’t sure who was going. The editing of tribal council was great, as they made it look like Ace would be going. Especially the sound effect. There’s a sound effect they always add in when someone makes a mistake that seals their fate. Jeff asked if anyone had the Idol and wanted to play it, and neither Sugar nor Ace spoke up, and they played the sound. They made it seem as if one of them was going.
Yet, in the end, the votes went to Paloma. They say it will help them at challenges, but they were already sitting her whenever they could, so really it won’t help that much. As far as team morale, I don’t think it will help that much there either. What will be interesting is if another from their tribe gets sent to Exile Island next week. If they get to the Idol, they’ll find in the end it’s not there, and they’ll know that either Sugar or Dan has it. Then they’ll have to decide whether to vote out her or Ace, trying to flush it out, knowing that if they play it, whoever Sugar and Ace vote for is going home, unless they’re smart and split the votes between Sugar and Ace, to be sure one of them goes. That’s just one of the scenarios, and hopefully, if editing is more on their game next week, they won’t tip their hand so early again.
Photos Courtesy of cbs.com
For more information on Survivor: Gabon, See Sirlinksalot: Survivor Gabon.
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