(Season 17, Episode 13 – “The Good Guys Should Win in the End”)
“Strategery” is obviously important in a game like Survivor, but you have to be careful, especially toward the end when there are so few players left. The remaining contestants can spend a lot more time paying attention to what you are and aren’t doing. Tonight’s Tribal Council, while not as devilishly delightful as the one in which Randy got voted out, was nevertheless one of the best ones of this season.
And can I say, kudos to the casting department for this season. We didn’t get a show filled with a bunch of pin-up models … well, maybe one. Instead, we got a cast of diverse people who all look different, talk different, come from different walks of life and respond totally different to the same situations. It’s made for a fantastic season; one of the best we’ve had in awhile.
I’ve been impressed with Kenny and Crystal’s under-the-radar strategic domination in the game up to this point, but in the past couple of episodes they’ve started coming way on the radar. It got to the point where they were blatant about their manipulations of everyone around them. Don’t get me wrong, Kenny’s strategies were sound. Even his plot tonight to get the Immunity Idol from Bob and then blindside him was spot-on. What he failed to do was account for the individual personalities of the people playing the game.
Maybe it’s because she spent so much time on Exile Island that nobody knows her that well, but Sugar is a genuinely decent human being. As such, when Kenny and Crystal started getting so aggressive with Matty for no reason, she realized that they’re not the best people in the world. I don’t think Sugar wants to put the game above her own integrity and sense of values. Bob doesn’t appear to want to do so either.
Which leads to the episode title and Sugar’s strategic turn into the mastermind this week. She even told Matty to let her do the thinking, which was clearly the right thing to do. Otherwise, his head was as much on the chopping block as Bob’s. Instead, in one of the more impressive blindsides of the season, Crystal was eliminated.
Honestly, I’m not sure why they went with Crystal before Kenny, considering he is the far more diabolical and clever of the two, and the one more likely to actually win an Immunity Challenge. Unless the challenge is to be tall, I think Crystal’s outclassed by the silverback ape she saw tonight.
I’m absolutely thrilled that Sugar turned things around, because in analyzing the final six players, you’ve had Crystal and Kenny manipulating and lying their way to the top, and you’ve had the other four. None of them have played a duplicitous game, so Sugar’s desire to have the good guys come out on top is one elimination away from coming true.
Then you’ve got a bunch of petty, whiny bitches on the jury (including Kenny by that point if all goes as she’s planning) who have to decide between three people who not only outplayed them in the game of Survivor, but are also better people in general than them. That is a beautiful turn of events. And it’s all Kenny’s and Crystal’s fault. They were legitimate underdogs and I had no problem with the way they were playing the game. But as soon as they got dominant, they got cocky. Nobody likes cocky and now Kenny’s all alone.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Dec 11, 2008 @ 22:10 EST5EDT
They picked Crystal over Kenny so that Bob could maintain his integrity with the jury. He said he would give his immunity necklace to Kenny if he thought that Kenny would be voted out. Since Crystal was the target, Bob could keep his promise.
I disagree with the fact that they were “picking on Matty for no reason.” Matty was complaining about having an extra vote cast for him, to which K/C responded that they’ve both had more votes cast for them than Matty and Matty has written both of their names down. I think that’s a fair response to Matty’s bitching and moaning, especially since he’s still in the game! I also can appreciate a good blindside, but remember, Kenny would have been gone on Day 21, had Crystal not saved his ass. And, Kenny knew that, and that was part of why he felt so guilty she took the responsibility for a lot of his actions by getting her torch snuffed out. Where Crystal went wrong was railing on Matty, but I like Crystal and dislike Matty, so that, to me, is forgiven! Except for Susie, I can’t be mad at the Final 5, for different reasons, Matty, Sugar, Kenny, and Bob all deserve to win. In Susie’s case, there’s a difference between “flying under the radar” and being a complete non-entity.
Loved that the two smartest people out there got together in an alliance. Yeah, I’m talking about Sugar and Bob. Sugar’s move in giving the idol to Matty was sheer genius, and of course there were Bob’s “arts projects” which even Probst admitted looked almost as good as the real thing. But more to the point Bob used his fakes to great advantage. Now Kenny is isolated, Suzie is only there on sufferance, and can really believe the jury giving any votes to Matty?
As a follow-up on Brent’s comment I have to agree: this was all a strategy to split Crystal and Kenny.
@Derek: there’s just about as much reason for Matty to be pissed (because he feels he’s a good guy, which I understand totally) and the reaction Crystal sported towards a lot of other people. That woman has displayed some seriously erratic reactions in the past episodes but all in all, that can all be disregarded because, again, this is all strategy.
While Bob is still winning it was better for Sugar to Break up Kenny and Crystal for the time being. Bob can’t win always and the first time he won’t, he will be voted out by the others, because he’s that strong.
To be honest I’ve never been more happy about a final five as now. We have the full range of possible competitors still left in the game. The strategist (Kenny), the brawns (Matty), the brains (Bob), beauty and whit (Sugar) and finally the under-the-radar person.
This is just absolutely great. It’s a condensed version of all that makes Survivor great and I have high hopes for the finale. Even the final tribal with the jury should be a blast because all the bitches and whackjobs are on the jury this time and most likely somebody intelligent will end up on the final three totally fooling those nuts on the jury again, tricking them into voting for them and talking about it in the reunion.
This has been a great season of Survivor so far and I am amazed that this show, in its 17th season, is still able to be this interesting.
Sebastian… I don’t find Matty to be a good guy because, if memory serves, he first flipped on K/C when Ace/Sugar joined the tribe. Had K/C not aligned with Kelly (?) and maybe GC (prior to his going batshit crazy) at the time, they would have been gone a long time ago. Matty flipped first, so there should be no reason why Matty should be surprised to see votes at this stage of the game. I do love the idea of the Final 5, but I don’t feel Susie deserves to be there. Her only contribution to the game was flipping on Marcus at the right time. What I do like about the season overall is that it didn’t follow the usual vote off the weak and keep the strong and changed people’s opinions of what is weak vs. strong.
Loving this season. Go Sugar!