Survivor Early Alliances and Interesting Approaches

Survivor Early Alliances and Interesting Approaches by Roxanne McDonald

Not only does this season of “Survivor” offer earlier than usual conflicts and clashes but introduces some interesting (odd, but interesting) survival strategies.

Granted, it is pretty clear from the start of every season who is the bossy one, who is the workhorse keeping his/her

mouth shut, and who will likely be the snake in the grass (or trees). But it seems this season on “Survivor”, the in-fighting has started exceptionally early.

Dave is either a source of half the altercations in Zhan Hu with his arrogant, passive-aggressive, and just downright nasty comments or is being unfairly represented by traditional editing. Methinks it is some of both.

Dave nags for his people to get a fire pit built; discounts Peih-Gee’s [albeit stubborn and consistently bossy and obnoxious] disagreements over location logistics.

Dave gives a snide response about wishful thinking to Jaime when she softly as ever suggests they can build the pit, start a fire, and eat something for strength for the next challenge.

Dave then gets into an unnecessary stand-off with Ashley, making his commands as he does but then following up with pejorative and debasing explanations that set Ashley off and acting just as impudent as he.

No better are the members of Fei Long, it seems. Though they are incredibly successful at the team challenges thus far, back at camp, where Jaime from Zhan Hu has been “kidnapped” for a short minute as part of the twists in winning, Jaime witnesses the Aaron ragging on Jean-Robert for taking a two-hour “rest”. This prompts somebody [I didn’t catch who] to camera-talk that they are delivering a map of who is hating whom and sees Jaime telling us she is so going to report back to her tribe how screwed up Fei Long is and, therefore, how Zhan Hu has no excuse for losing the challenges.

Next are the individual actions justified as “strategic”.

For the belching and snoring Jean-Robert, this means doing little work, arguing, and then telling us that his strategy is as it is in his poker-playing: be lazy and then in a couple of days pick up the slack so that tribemates remark how much he has stepped up his game! So this is the equivalent of a bluff?

For the devastated-without-her Bible Leslie, the strategies are equally strange. Not only does she make herself an obvious weakest link with her feeling sick and useless, but her dependency on the Bible is so great that she cannot maintain her usual contact with the Lord (funny, I didn’t realize you needed the book as a medium) and therefore does what she refers to as hiding out or running away or whatever. [I go deaf when she starts all that

God-whining/ blaming.] Jaime from the other tribe i.d.s her as the weakest and gives her the mandatory clue to the hidden immunity idol. What does she do with the clue? Well, so weak she is without her God, who is only best by way of her Bible, she flits about looking for the “obvious” for about two minutes, then gives Todd the clue.
Okay, this stupid strategy can only imply she is not long for the boat home. She has given up. She has lost the edge needed (if she ever had it) to outwit, outlast, outplay.

Leslie is no Jameka, the Big Brother player who made Christianity an open-forum topic and proof that some with faith use that faith to empower themselves for longer than two weeks.

That brings us to, finally, the alliances. Speaking of Leslie and of Big Brother, we learned that there are two opinions about early alliances: some say it is necessary to start building alliances from the start; others say that to do so so early in the season, when you don’t even know last names or true personalities, is guaranteed death to the longevity of your game.

So what this says about Leslie trusting Todd with something the boys back in “Survivor: Fiji” didn’t do until the last third of the game or what this says about Amanda and Todd agreeing to allying themselves first is anyone’s call.

It’s rare these days that any long-running reality show can surprise us all that much, but “Survivor: China” has done just that. Sort of.

SirLinksAlot Survivor: China links

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