"Survivor," Sunday
What Happened: The last three days in the Amazon are filled with tension, two immunity challenges, tribal councils, and much more deceit. Day 37 brings lots of rain and even more of Butch's strange dancing. The first immunity challenge involves going through a maze blind-folded and retrieving four separate necklaces.
Jenna wins this immunity challenge quickly. This ruins Matthew's, Rob's and Butch's plans to vote out Jenna, and the three men beg the sole woman to keep them in the game. At first, Jenna promises Butch to vote for Rob, but she changes her mind. Butch is then voted out and put on the jury.
The final three castaways have a huge breakfast, then get to weigh themselves on a scale provided by the show. The host, Jeff Probst, appears at camp to invite them on a seaplane tour of the Amazon. Afterwards, they go to a hut and decorate themselves as Amazonian warriors with paint, jewelry, beads, etc.
At tribal council, the three go through their immunity challenge in front of the jury. They must stand on a wooden perch holding their self-made headdresses above their head. Whoever stays up the longest wins immunity. Again, Jenna wins the immunity challenge. She votes Rob off the island, leaving just her and Matthew.
On their last day, Jenna and Matthew reminisce about their time in the Amazon, and all the players they voted out. Matthew finds their boat, forgotten after the seaplane ride, and sends it out to sea as a burning tribute to the Amazon crew. At the last tribal council, Jenna and Matthew make their opening statements. Then, each of the seven jury members (Butch, Rob, Heidi, Dave, Alex, Deena and Christy) ask a question of the final two contestants. Jenna and Matthew make their closing statements and then the jury votes. After a five-minute montage of host Jeff Probst driving himself on a Ski-Doo back to the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, he reveals that Jenna is the sole Survivor.
My Thoughts Let's start at the beginning, so I can build up my anger and frustration. The first 30 minutes of this show were pretty interesting, especially since the guys' plans to vote off Jenna are really screwed up once she wins immunity. I was sad that Butch had to go, because he was the only guy on the show who was nice and never lied or stabbed anyone in the back.
In fact, most of the first 70 minutes of the show were interesting, despite being a little padded. It was surprising, to me that Jenna won both immunities; She never seemed to be physically fit during the show, and her tonsillitis seemed to disappear on the last installment. The final day in the Amazon was pretty boring. When Jenna and Matthew remembered who had been on the island with them seemed way too scripted. I'm not saying they might not have thought of a few other castaways, but not every one.
The last tribal council was an absolute hoot. It was nice to hear Jenna and Matthew be honest about honesty and deceit; they had both lied and both owned up to it. The saddest and funniest moment came when Heidi asked Jenna and Matthew who else they thought should be in the final two. Both said Rob should be up there for his strategy, and Heidi said, "There was no one else?" Jeff Probst's chiding response ("I think they covered it") was priceless.
The silliest question of all was Dave's: "Which modern influential leader do you think you've emulated here in the Amazon, and why?" The only time I ever thought Jenna was slightly smart was when she said that she has never and will never emulate a modern influential leader. Matthew's answer was stranger, as he compared himself to Colin Powell. I wonder if talking to a machete is Colin Powell-esque.
But even if Jenna's response to that question was smart, her comment about having the handicap of being beautiful was frightening. I didn't see the first episodes of this show, so I heard this remark tonight for the first time from Christy, who is deaf. She obviously didn't find it very nice, and Jenna's apologizing did nothing to make her look appealing.
Apparently, though, I was way off. Jenna was voted Survivor. I can't imagine who voted for her aside from Alex, Dave and Heidi. Butch, as we saw, voted for Matt. Christy seemed like she would never vote for Jenna. Deena hated Jenna from day one, it seemed. Why would Rob vote for Jenna? It's sad, but it must be because she's hot. Jenna didn't deserve this award, but at least, by week's end, she'll be forgotten.
"Survivor," Thursday
What Happened: As the 34th day of “Survivor” dawns, Jenna complains about a pain in her mouth. She says it is tonsillitis and that she can’t work. Rob tells Heidi he’ll most likely vote her off at the next tribal council. Butch is seen collecting ample amounts of firewood, though it seems the shelter is doing fine without his contributions. Matthew wins a new car in the complicated reward challenge filled with decoding, puzzles and rope swings. He and Rob enjoy a “tailgate party” while Butch, Jenna and Heidi go back to the shelter to find it burnt down by a fire. Butch is blamed for stacking the dry wood around the shelter. Jenna and Heidi refuse to help with the rebuilding of the shelter for no good reason. Matthew wins immunity in a five-tiered rope obstacle course. Jenna begs her fellow castaways to vote her out due to her growing pain and altogether miserable feeling. However Heidi is voted off the island because of her claims that she spearheaded most of the strategies and alliances. Thus, the final four castaways are Butch, Matthew, Rob and Jenna.
My Thoughts: If I remember anything about this reality show, it will be the reaction shots of Rob, Butch, Matthew and the four jury members when Heidi claimed to have started and “masterminded” the strategies of the castaways. The only reason that she became so delusional must be that the isolation of the Amazon has gotten to her. However, I'm most annoyed with Butch. The week after I start to root for him, he decides to be Firewood Man, inadvertently burn down the shelter and not take blame for it. Butch is starting to disappoint me, but I am still rooting for him. Also, it was odd to see the castaways not get extremely angry about the shelter burning down. I wonder why. Losing their only material goods should have gotten them into quite an uproar. My guess for the final two in “Survivor: The Amazon” are Matthew and Jenna. I suspect Matthew will win, as long as he sides himself with people who are sure to be voted out by the jury. The finale is on Sunday night, so the wait won’t be too long.
"American Idol 2," Wednesday
What Happened: Ruben, Clay, Kimberley and Joshua sang Bee Gees songs with Robin Gibb as guest judge on Tuesday night. After the recap on Wednesday night's show, ther was an incredibly lengthy medley of Bee Gees songs from the final four singers. The bottom two singers were Kimberley and Joshua. Before host Ryan Seacrest announced who was voted out, the producers of the show proved to us why white people have no groove or rhythm with a commercial where Ruben and Clay are pimps. Finally, Seacrest revealed that Joshua is out of "American Idol 2."
My Thoughts: I'm still confused as to why the Bee Gees were popular. Obviously, the people on "American Idol" can't really sing, but still, the music is incoherent and saccharine. Nothing is more incoherent than the judges and host on this show. The little skit that led into the promotion for the new "American Junior Idols" show was absolutely atrocious. However, this episode did have the most deliciously pleasant moment of all: no one was sad that Joshua was voted out. Everyone was too busy cheering for Kimberley to care about the Marine who wants to serve his country, but would rather sing country songs.
Josh Spiegel is an entertainment reporter for the Web Devil. Reach him at joshua.spiegel@asu.edu.
