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S I G H T S | review
Turning Point
by Chris Wright Caution: Potential spoilers ahead.
We have reached the point in Survivor: Marquesas where the rest of the season could be either predictable as Murder, She Wrote or as twist-filled as The Usual Suspects. Decisions made in the next episode will likely determine the direction — and suspense level — of the rest of the game. And Vecepia, a minor character to this point, may well be the key player. With Rob’s departure in Episode 7, three groups of players remain: the original Rotu (John, Tammy, Zoe, Robert), who are aligned; the Rotu-turned-Maraaumu (Kathy, Neleh, Paschal); and the Maraamu-turned-Rotu (Sean, Vecepia). At this point, John and company are in control. The question is whether the other five players are smart enough — and brave enough — to form an unholy alliance and topple them. The underdogs in each of the previous three Survivors had their shot in a similarly “pivotal” episode, and all three blew it. In Episode 9 of the original Survivor, Dr. Sean could have joined with Jenna, Gervase and Colleen in voting for Richard and thus destroying the dominant Tagi alliance, but he stuck to his idiotic alphabetical voting strategy and jotted down “Jenna.” Tagi took advantage of this, voting out Jenna 4-3-1, and sailed into the endgame. Episode 11 of Survivor: The Australian Outback found the Ogakor alliance of Tina, Colby and Keith continuing to dominate as their original tribemate Amber was dispatched. The question here is why in the heck Amber didn’t team up with outnumbered ex-Kuchas Rodger and Elizabeth to force a 3-3 tie and dump Keith or Colby due to their prior votes. Perhaps the most inexplicable screw-up came last season in Africa, when the fractured ex-Samburus couldn’t unite to forge a 4-4 tie against the ex-Borans and vote out Lex, thus assuring Samburu’s demise. Granted, the lack of trust among the players was a mitigating factor in prior seasons, but it remains to be seen whether the Marquesan players have learned from past strategic bugaboos. If they have, viewers are in for a taut final run — and it would only be fitting, given that this is the most freewheeling Survivor yet. The big question, however, is whether the members of the dominant alliance — John, Robert, Tammy and Zoe (a.k.a the worst liar since Sue “Noooo, there is no alliance” Hawk) — are smart enough to befriend a fifth member to ensure their spots in the final four. John, at the very least, must know to do this. After all, the token gay man (who seems to be channeling Richard Hatch, what with his naked diving in Episode 6) has a Survivor tattoo on one shoulder. As big a fan of the show as he is, he must know its history well. We’ve had hints that “JTRZ,” as SurvivorSucks message board posters call the Rotu alliance, may have pulled Vecepia into their fold. She’s been shown bonding with John and Tammy, and Sean and Rob have complained to the camera of her distancing herself from them. Most interesting, she voted for Rob at the most recent tribal council, saying she owed him and Sean beer and pizza. She may have merely been piling on another vote to look good, but she sure sounds like someone who’s decided to play for the other team. Moreover, in an online-only video confessional, Tammy refers to a group of “five” who will help take her to the endgame. Is Vecepia the fifth player? But on the other hand, at this point in the game, Vecepia doing this doesn’t make much sense. Why join an alliance where she would clearly be the outsider? Why not bring together Kathy, Sean, Paschal and Neleh and take control?
Renniw Eht?
A few other things point to a “KSPNV” alliance possibly forming. First — and this is the only hint that is concrete — a CBS teaser for Episode 8 states, “Sean and Vecepia vow to fight till the end. But John has his own plans for them.” This makes little sense if Vecepia has indeed joined John’s alliance. In addition, a detailed spoiler, posted in February, purports that John and Tammy were voted out consecutively around the middle of the game, then spent time on a cruise ship anchored in a nearby harbor. Some have questioned the spoiler’s validity because a few details given about the boat’s layout are factually incorrect. However, many online fans still believe in it because it also states that items from the set were being shipped to Manhattan, and CBS recently announced that Marquesas’ reunion show would take place there, not in Los Angeles, as the others have. In the past few days, a SurvivorSucks poster has claimed to have written the spoiler as a hoax, but whether it really is can only be determined by watching what plays out on screen.
Most interesting — or most ridiculous, depending on one’s viewpoint of the Survivor online culture — fans at SurvivorSucks and other Internet message boards think they’ve already spotted a telltale editing pattern that suggests who may win Survivor: Marquesas. This is reminiscent of the last two seasons, when a poster known only as TapeWatcherB65 authored complicated editing theories that predicted Tina’s and Ethan’s respective victories. TapeWatcherB65 has kept quiet thus far this season, but others have noticed something that could signal a victory for the youngest-ever contestant: Neleh. As this theory’s author, poster NelehWillWin, explained, key to this is the fact that Neleh, 21, is named after her grandmother, Helen — that is, “Neleh” spelled backward, and this season’s episodes have included strangely out-of-sequence shots and momentary backward images. Note, for example, the video captures above of Neleh’s face, from a recent episode. In the top picture, her scar is on her right cheek and her mole on her left. But in the bottom picture, they’ve switched (click here for larger images). Yet the "CBS watermark" has remained in place, which means this isn’t some prank by an online, well, prankster — this is how it aired.
Also, several online Survivor fans noted that when Rob and Kathy make their ill-fated pact during Episode 7’s merge summit, they are shown shaking with their right hands, then for a split-second with their left hands, and then with their right hands again. Except it’s not their left hands in the second shot — it’s a mirror image of their right hands (looking at a larger image up close, you’ll catch “Coors’ written backward on Kathy’s beer can during the reversed shot). Changes like this had to have occurred in an editing bay and therefore almost certainly aren’t an accident. Granted, to the average viewer such musings sound silly — why would executive producer Mark Burnett go to such trouble? And who the heck has the time to notice such details? But just tell that to the thousands of online fans who know from experience how much Burnett likes to toy with viewers — and who all but knew midway through Survivor: Africa that Ethan would win simply because the sun kept following him around. After Episode 8, all of this should be a lot clearer. If Sean, Vecepia, Kathy, Neleh or Paschal is voted out, we’re likely in for another uneventful run to the season finale, with the Rotu alliance booting the others one by one. But if ‘the outsiders’ can get their act together and get rid of John or Tammy, this could turn out to be the most exciting Survivor yet — and could give Burnett the redemption from critics he’s on course to deserve. 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 covered the weekly sociological aspects of Season 3 of Survivor and will report occasionally on Season 4. Related Sites: |
