Who is the number one Survivor to watch? Is it a team leader like Boston Rob or Tom? Is it an underhanded player like Cirie or Russell? Absolutely not. Readers, start paying attention to Courtney. Sure, she is a go-to girl for snarky confessions, but her power to affect the game has gotten a bit scary even just at Day 4. Flashback to the challenge on the beach: Parvati and Stephenie are wrestling. Courtney screams from the sidelines “Break her arm!”, which is a move I believe she learned from her years training under the Kobra Kai.
But what happened? Moments later, Stephenie was suffering from a dislocated shoulder. At the time, I thought it was a strange coincidence. Now a few days later, Courtney, with the subtlety of that old lady from Drag Me to Hell, cracks that she hopes Boston Rob doesn’t drop dead in the woods because the tribe would suffer without him. What happens? Rob passes out in the woods! Luckily, he is able to stay in the game after being hydrated and being diagnosed by the Survivor med staff (who are earning their pay this season) with a bit of the flu and a touch of crybaby-itis.
Rob name-checks the episode title during this scene when he tells Jeff that the game is “getting the best of me.” Strangely enough, the title worked for what was occurring on the Heroes’ side of the island as well. The Heroes arrived in this game with puffed chests, proud of how their “heroicness” not only made them legends in Survivor, but also a great team. But the game is slowly draining this team of their noble stature, which is the best of them. As fun as I initially thought that a beach full of Villains fully capable of stabbing each other in the back would be, I think the complete breakdown and corruption of the Heroes team as they turn on each other will be equally as interesting.
The first to fall to evil is the gravedigger himself, James. At first, I was really behind this guy. Imagine being the Survivor known for making one of the biggest blunders in the game. He is now here for the third time to prove himself worthy of the Sole Survivor title. It has got to be frustrating, then, to see your team make a game plan of “one voice” for the Immunity Challenge, and have it turn into “many voices” leading to yet another loss. I guess James heard Steph’s voice more than the other chefs in the kitchen because after the challenge, he focused on rallying the Heroes tribe against her.
And again, I completely agreed with him when he continued to lecture the rest of his teammates that there should have been “one voice” out there. But then, he started to fall to the dark side. First, he tried to convince everyone that not only did she not help, but she was Survivor kryptonite. These personal attacks kept going even into Tribal Council as James said there was nothing romantic about her losing all her tribemates in Survivor: Palau. Stephenie tried to defend herself by saying that James had at first blamed losing the challenge on a collective “y’all”, and now was focusing on her.
It was admirable to see Colby and Tom jump to her defense saying that James was being a bully. Tom, until this point, had actually been keeping his feelings about James’ behavior a secret, but you could see he couldn’t take it anymore. It was kind of like Vader at the end of Jedi tossing the Emperor to his doom, only James is more athletic than the Emperor, and Tom’s voice is deeper.
The two factions, who were lying undercover last week, because they both united to take down annoying Sugar, came rising to the top at the end of Tribal. Colby alluded to the fact that the Heroes were no longer a team and Tom admitted that alliances had been formed and lines had been drawn. In the end, Stephenie was voted out. As she tried to warn the team that the in-fighting wasn’t going to help them, James cut her down one last time: “Keep your mouth shut!”
James is a physically powerful player for the Heroes. But at the end of this episode, I do not think even JT, who he has an alliance with, believed that his behavior was justified. I can’t wait to see the aftermath of this Tribal Council. I think Tom is going to make James cry. Personally, I hope the not-so-gentle giant gets voted out next. I sure hope Courtney says something about him next week.
