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by Chris Wright Ours is a culture that has long been fascinated with good v. evil. The war on terrorism, including the ongoing search for ‘the evil one,” is the most recent, and obvious, example of such rhetoric, but consider also our fascination with narratives like Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, both recent box-office extravaganzas. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Survivor’s executive producer, Mark Burnett, turned Survivor: Africa into a good v. evil showdown on Kenya’s Shaba National Reserve. The fact that he lacked a true villain did not deter him. Burnett did what all TV producers do: He created one. In this analysis, for example, a SurvivorSucks member known as TapeWatcherB65 predicted Ethan Zohn’s victory early on, noting that Burnett consistently showed the two strongest contenders in (literally) opposite lights. The likable Ethan was linked with sun imagery, while the irascible Lex was linked with the moon or fire — too many times for it to be a coincidence. (Warning: the page is graphic-heavy and takes a long time to load.) Certainly Lex’s scenes were edited so we would think he was “evil.” He was obsessed with winning and tore down everything in his path without even stopping to think. Ethan was the opposite: The only back-handed thing he ever did was throwing the Episode 5 immunity challenge to dispatch Silas. (In the end, an ambivalent Kim Johnson had to choose between them, like an cartoon character with a tiny angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other.)
TapeWatcherB65 takes things much further, citing bizarrely abundant cross imagery and other factors to make an “Ethan as Jesus/Lex as Satan” argument that’s too complex to get into here. But it’s an eye-opening read for any Survivor fan or film studies buff. It raises many questions regarding Burnett’s intentions in editing Survivor and the thought he puts into it. In the past 12 weeks, this series of Survivor articles has made the same assumption: There’s more to Survivor than meets the eye. Some dismiss the show as trash TV, but lumping it with other reality fare isn’t fair. Unlike Temptation Island, it doesn’t exploit players’ personal lives or revolve around sex. And social interaction and strategy are less important on shows like The Mole, where contestants don’t vote one another off. Survivor, however, is valuable on many fronts: as engrossing entertainment, as an example of outstanding editing and multi-level storytelling, and as a means to study human behavior. It’s Sociology 101 in the wild.
"I haven’t seen so many angry white people since O.J. Courtesy of: For all the talk in this space about stereotypes, however, the season finale made mincemeat of most of them. Indeed, although Ethan’s win was, in the end, no surprise, the road to it certainly was. Kim’s shocking immunity challenge victories made the finale the most suspenseful, surprising Survivor: Africa episode since Lex embarked on his witch hunt. Who woulda thunk it? Kim Johnson, a grandmother and a non-factor in every other challenge — heck, she single-handedly lost three early on for her tribe — beat her male Moto Maji mates at a memory game and, amazingly, at the classic final hands-on-the-idol test. A Coke bottle falling out of the African sky would have been less unexpected. But then, Survivor: Africa’s greatest strength was its sheer unpredictability. Silas, king of Samburu, became Boran outcast in one fell swoop; a paranoid Lex hanged innocent Kelly, nearly derailing his alliance’s express train to the endgame — Brandon’s dunderheaded betrayal of the ex-Samburus, however, ensured the remaining ex-Borans would be the final four. It was the turning point of the game. Until the finale, however, the one thing that was predictable about Survivor: Africa was Burnett neatly boxing his “characters’ into classic categories and stereotypes: Clarence, the black thief; Lindsey, the whiny woman; Frank, the homophobic Army man; Brandon, the homosexual; and, of course, Kim J., the weak, boring older woman — someone out of her league, this season’s Sonya. Well, so much for that. Perhaps she was edited so blandly simply to make the ending that much more shocking. “In that last immunity [challenge], I felt I needed to prove I deserved to be there,” she said, ‘that I could do it on my own, that none of you guys needed to carry me.” She certainly did. Kim’s emergence wasn’t the only role-buster of the finale. Turns out throat-slashing Lex wasn’t so evil after all. Listen to Kim, forced to choose between him and Ethan as her final partner: “I love [them] both equally. … It’s probably the most bittersweet thing that’s ever happened to me.” Writing his name at the voting booth, tears overcame her. “Forgive me,” she pleaded. And at the reunion, Lex was friendly and cheerful, worlds apart from his on-screen persona. (Former Survivors Rich and Jerri, on the other hand, seem semi-villainous even in real life.) Conversely, after seeing Tom as a dumb, lovable, mildly offensive goof for three months, his final voting confessional cast him in a completely different light. “You rode me and Ethan and Lex’s coattails to get where you are,” he malevolently spat at Kim. “You can’t do something miraculous this time because your fate has caught up with you … I’m hushing you, shut up!” The fact that he wrote “Eathen” on his ballot, however, made his tirade less effective. It turns out other stereotypes prevailed on the show despite some contestants’ best intentions. Brandon, for one, said during the post-finale reunion with Bryant Gumbel that television portrays “20-something gay people [as] promiscuous people caught up in the party scene.” He went on the show in part to prove that is merely a caricature. “I didn’t succeed,” he said. “I just looked like a raving bitch.” And then we have Kelly, who complained to Gumbel that women in the media often come off as either the villain (ala Jerri) or the ing”nue (Colleen), and that her Survivor goal had been ‘to play it like a real person.” No such luck. Even though Kelly had been unjustly evicted, her bitter tirade at the final Tribal Council was overdone and misdirected. Granted, she’d had 15 days to stew about it, but she still came off as a Sue/Jerri wanna-be. But we’re getting away from Survivor: Africa’s real story: Ethan, Ethan, Ethan. It’s funny that Lex was a much more dominant figure — he called the shots in the Boran alliance and was Mr. Controversy for several episodes running. Ethan, on the other hand, was quiet and rarely delivered a caustic remark. He was the anti-Lex. And if Lex’s portrayal was overt, Ethan’s was subtle. I suggested in the review of Episode 9 that Burnett was hiding a close friendship between Kim and Ethan. It seems I was half right: There was no secret alliance between them, but it’s all but certain that Burnett downplayed their relationship to keep viewers from guessing the outcome. He played his hand, however, once only Ethan and Kim remained: They cuddled as Lex’s torch went out, held hands as they left Tribal Council, and — the clincher — kissed by the water tank the next morning. Awwwwww. Burnett kept things interesting this season with inventive challenges and the unexpected switcheroo, but we never got to know Ethan and Kim quite as well as earlier Survivors. He also still hasn’t solved the Pagonging problem — the tendency of one tribe to wipe out the other after the merge. That’s the main reason he sometimes resorts to deceptive previews and editing, which in the end only frustrate fans. Here’s hoping has more surprises up his sleeve for Survivor: Marquesas. One suggestion: color commentary by Rudy Boesch. Well, one can hope, right? Next episode: A ’special” report on the 16 Survivors’ lives back in the United States. Um, yeah. Even this writer will probably be watching Friends. Who’s the father of Rachel’s baby again? Survivor: Marquesas, by the way, debuts Thursday, Feb. 28. Chris Wright, an admitted Survivor addict since Season 1, Episode 3, spends his days as a copy editor for Federal Computer Week in Falls Church, Va. He previously wrote about how the media turns crime stories into narratives. His take on Survivor will appear here each week.
Related Sites: Immunity challenge: With the jury looking on, the final four must answer questions about their “fallen comrades.” Kim wins her first challenge, forcing apart the Tom/Lex/Ethan triad. Tribal Council: Tom votes for Lex, but everyone else votes for Tom, with Ethan having a particularly hard time doing so. Day 38 (final three) Immunity challenge: In a final test of endurance and will, Lex, Ethan and Kim must keep both feet on elevated posts and one hand on the immunity idol. Ethan falls after more than two hours; Lex’s stomach gets the better of him an hour later, giving Kim a ticket to the final two. Back at camp, Kim reflects on the “bittersweet” choice she faces at Tribal Council, while Ethan and Lex mull their fates. Tribal Council: A tearful Kim votes out Lex. (Lex and Ethan do not vote, as they can only vote for each other.) Kim and Ethan depart holding hands, torches still alight. Day 39 (final two) Tribal Council: The final two face questions from the jury, including a bitter Kelly and a bizarre Tom (who asks about the meaning of a hyena licking itself). Kim insults Tom twice during the questioning, while Ethan disses Brandon. The jury then votes 5-2 in favor of Ethan (Brandon and Kim P. dissent), adding him to the ranks of Survivor champs Richard Hatch and Tina Wesson. |
