‘Survivor: Philippines’ review: At least there’s cookies…
Can we just rename “Survivor: Philippines” at this point the Matsing show? It almost seems appropriate how terrible this one tribe is, and how much airtime they are getting at the moment because of their own failures. It’s almost akin to watching a Shakespearean tragedy: you know it’s going to end well for them, but yet can’t stop watching regardless.
What seems even more terrible for this tribe is that they just seemed to be doomed from the start courtesy of Fool’s gold: people who either disappoint in challenges, or are put in the wrong places. Roxy could not do puzzles, yet that was her spot in the first challenge. Meanwhile, we had Angie falling down at the end of last week’s challenge and praying for cookies at tribal council; and this week, both she and Russell Swan seem completely incapable of doing anything with water.
At this point, we almost see a “Palau” situation happening here where this tribe loses until it cannot lose anymore, and this ultimately ends up leading to the remaining one or two people getting a fresh start elsewhere. The good news for Russell? He managed to buy some time thanks mostly to being a hard worker who could in theory be good at some challenges. The bad news? Even with Angie now gone to the great Mrs. Fields in the sky, he’s probably the next to go thanks to the smart alliance between Malcolm and Denise. (Our rankings will probably reflect this over the weekend.)
Oh, so there are two other tribes here! Really with Tandang, all we got out of them are that people on this tribe want Michael Skupin out (including the once-invisible Artis) for no reason other than that he seems like he has paper skin, and also that RC is out of her mind for sharing an immunity idol clue before having the idol. We do still respect her level head and her interest in actually playing this game. Her strategy probably would have worked if she had picked a better alliance partner, but Abi seems to be overly paranoid and also a tad petty when it comes to some of her moves. Take, for instance, when she found the immunity idol, when she was only happy that she found it because RC didn’t. We don’t really think she is playing the game the right way, and it will doom her eventually.
Finally, we turn to Kalabaw, otherwise known as “Jeff Kent, Joanthan Penner, and four other people.” Penner tried to bond with the baseball star by showing him the idol as a move of trust, and the two even agreed to work together for a time. The problem? Jeff still wants him out, and we’re really not sure how much Penner gained out of show him anything.
Do you think keeping Russell is going to help Matsing, and do you think any of the other Kalabaw members are every going to do anything interesting? Be sure to share your thoughts below!