Survivor Guatemala: Week 2

You know it's going to be a great series of Survivor when it's only the second episode but already people are complaining about their tribemates' work ethics and the pixellating machine in the editing suite has been cracked out (pardon the pun).

The producers love weaving in shots of scary-looking local animals to make it appear that the Survivors are in imminent peril, and the opening scene this week was a fat, hairy tarantula going about his business. As if that wasn't revolting enough to watch while eating dinner, Bobby Jon and Blake still can't keep any food down. Blake in particular seems to need all of nurse Margaret's attention or he'll keel over and die, but only at camp while there's work to be done. During the challenges he comes out strong and is a big star hero, much to the annoyance of all the other guys in the tribe who want to be heroes, too.

Gary is still desperately trying to hide his NFL background from everyone in his tribe while ensuring that the rest of the world is in no doubt that he is a 'somebody'. He keeps claiming that he'll get voted off if his tribemates find out, but hasn't explained why they'd do that. Danni the sports radio host from Nakúm recognised him straight away and told Brian, who later asked Gary about it in front of everyone else. Gary's ego won't be able to keep up the pressure of suppressing his super nova, so eventually he'll get voted off for lying, regardless of who he is. Ahh, karma!

Continuing the spider theme from earlier, the Reward Challenge was a large rope web set up over a pond in a spot that was probably virgin rainforest until the pre-production crew arrived. Survivors took turns to retrieve bags tied to the web, drop back into the pond, then climb a short rope ladder out of the water and run back to the starting point. Of course the big buffed boys all wanted to go first, but it didn't occur to any of them to pick off the bags that were furthest away and hardest to reach instead of leaving the easiest ones to the weaker team members who went later. Hopefully next time they'll remember to allow for Rafe, because the amount of time he wasted falling into the water without a bag and then not being able to climb the ladder out again was longer than the amount of time by which Yaxhá eventually lost.
Nakúm used their prize of a fishing kit to go catch themselves some protein. Even more impressively, Lydia managed to catch a fish for each person in Yaxhá by building a clever little shoreline fish trap with some rocks. Well, it was impressive until a fly crawled onto the platter holding all that fish and we saw that they were only slightly bigger than the fly. Still, the only other option was live ants, and the girls are nowhere near ready for the gross food challenge just yet.

The immunity challenge was an old fashioned tug-o-war, with each Survivor tied to the rope by the waist. Given the terrified dread of sexuality with which CBS has wielded its pixellating machine ever since the Janet Jackson Super Bowl "Nipplegate" incident I simply fail to understand why the tug-o-war had to be set in a mud wrestling pit.

When the first round failed to produce a winner the game switched to one-on-one challenges. To win you either had to reach the flag at your end or just be closest to it when the time ran out. That crucial 'closest to your own end' bit of detail must have skipped Gary right by: I'm sure he thought he was pulling some smooth NFL move by suddenly running toward Judd and pinning him into the mud with only seconds to go. The team didn't risk allowing Gary do any more thinking in the last two rounds, using Jamie twice instead, but the damage was done and Yaxhá was off to their first Tribal Council.

Jamie, who really isn't the smartest person to ever play Survivor, wanted to vote off Stephanie but was instantly howled down. Lydia seemed an obvious choice, but as Brian pointed out she works really hard around camp and hasn't lost them a challenge (and if losing a challenge for the team is a criteria, Rafe and Gary should both be gone by now). Morgan hadn't lost a challenge, but she hadn't done any work around camp either, which even at this early stage was a stupid mistake to make.

In reality the Lydia v Morgan dilemma had nothing to do with those two individuals, and everything to do with the others sizing up who they could trust to stick to a promised voting pattern. Again, it was interesting to see that happening so soon in the series. Brian wanted Morgan to go, and very cleverly arranged that by telling Lydia to start lobbying for herself. He is really going to be this season's Machiavelli, and should provide plenty of entertainment.

Morgan's comment to camera as she voted for Lydia was, "I’m sure this is one of the hardest decisions I'll make while I'm out here." It was also her last decision, because she's gone in an 8-1 vote that she didn't see coming at all. Hopefully for her the decision on how she'll fill in the next twelve weeks won't be as difficult to make.