Gone East

Survivor All-Stars Notes, Finally - Ep#6

Posted after Ep #6, Mar 4, 2004. This post, and its comments, may contain spoilers....

People have been asking me what happened to the notes I promised for last weeks Survivor. Well, two things...

First of all I lost the piece of paper that I took my notes on while watching the ep. So I've been dragging my feet until it turned up. It has.

Second, and more seriously. People's reactions to this episode, in my comments area, and out in the world, have been pretty intense. I was a little reluctant to check-in with my wise-ass comments for fear that I'd say something stupid and reveal myself as the shallow... guy... that I am.

But I've thought about the whole thing a lot. And I've decided to throw caution, and common sense, to the wind.

Let's talk about the unserious parts of the ep first, then I'll talk about "the thing" later. Maybe you'll get bored and not read that far, and I'll be spared from this self-destructive act.

Some things I jotted on my scrap of paper:

>> In the recap of last week's tribal council, I noticed that Richard was wearing one of those hiking kilts. I wonder how much placement $$ he got for that?

>> Early on, when Rupert was talking about Sue's distress, he said, "she could have said 'foul' and she didn't."

I wonder if THAT is the safe word. Are the players told they can call FOUL and some process will kick in?

>> Jerri and Lex forming an alliance?

>> Rob/Rupert/Amber/Jenna agree among themselves that they have created a final-four alliance. Has one of these ever worked?

>> My sister caught the fact that the conversation between Colby and Shii Ann was shown out of sequence. Shii Ann is eating an orange, but they didn't get the fruit until after Reward. Is this conversation different when in the context that Sue has already left?

>> The Goodies Catapult Reward. Note that Jenna was the one who wanted to sit down and share, but she was shouted down by the others.

"Let's Play. Let's have some fun" they all said.

Mogo wins. Chapera is struggling to survive all these blows. They really must be reeling from all the setbacks.

>> The incident and Sue's departure.

In my notes, while Sue was suffering at the camp and on the beach, I wrote, "Sue's distress seems genuine and is disturbing. It's as if she has been raped."

One can go through all the physical evidence (really, no pun intended), and hash through what actually happened. But I think Sherm's entertainment guy had it right. "The point is, to Sue, it WAS a big deal."

And she should be treated with care and respect. It seems from what we saw that Jeff and Co. did that. I hope they really did.

I'm also glad, from the description of the interview with Sue and Richar, that she seems to have reached some peace about this. I hope that's real too, and that it sticks.

As for Hatch, I hope he doesn't take too much heat for this.

While it's right that Sue be treated and helped for what, to her, was a very real, and damaging, sexual harrassment. I don't think that Richard committed a sexual harrassment.

I think he knew that he was being outrageous, and he was certainly taunting her, and continueing his strategy of using his nudity as a way of adding confusion into the game. But I don't think he had any idea it would be so hurtful, and I don't believe he would have done it if he did.

On the Early Show he said, "We have a perspective of Sue Hawk as, you know, super tough… And I learned something: You know, she's a sensitive person. And afterwards, it really, really, got to her. It just started to really, really, get to her. It was emotional."

And finally, the critical reaction of some players afterwards. Very disappointing.

With any other matter, it would be a near certainty that the producers would be emphasizing this kind of bad behaviour in the editing. It adds to the drama of the show.

As I was watching, I was convinced that the editing was not skewed. I believed that the editors would not mess around with such a sensitive issue, especially considering the possible repercussions on these people when they come back to the world.

Now, a week later, I'm not so sure. The editors might have blown out of proportion, the bad attitudes, of a few. I don't know, we'll see.

But I *AM* certain, that a battle line has been drawn between at least some of the women, and at least some of the men. Will the women use this as a rallying point, to take revenge on the badly behaving, or maybe all, men?

What with Sue's trauma, and Jenna's mom, this season of Survivor has gotten a little too "real" for me. I'm hoping that we can now get back to some good-old-fashioned conspiring and backstabbing. "Let's have some fun."

Posted by jghiii at March 11, 2004 01:14 PM