Survivor 28: Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty: Week 5

Survivor 28: Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty: Week 5

And just like that, “The Geek shall inherit the earth”.

Yep.  The dwindling and defeated tribe of pompous and frail brainiacs filled the inside straight and ended up with a numbers advantage on their tribe subsequent to the re-shuffle.

Under normal circumstances, I would have dismissed this as nothing more than a temporary reprieve given that they were still likely to go into the merge outnumbered by 1 or both tribes but a nuber of developments may give these clowns some serious staying power:

1)      That improvident lack-wit Tony banded together with the pilates instructor who looks like a mummy that nobody likes and helped to decimate his own tribe, fracturing trust and destroying a nearly insurmountable numbers advantage when the merge arrives.

2)      The 2 girls from the “beauty” tribe each launched an unprovoked campaign of petty rumor mongering and pointless cattiness against each other instead of uniting and pointing out how important it is to wipe the uber-physical cop lady out.

In short, the remains of the other tribes have begun falling upon each other, needing no encouragement whatsoever, while the brainy losers just stare at each other incredulously and watch these feebleminded louts destroy each other.

Let’s break the new tribes down eh?

Appari Tribe:

--Sarah, Spencer, Morgan, Kass, Tasha, Jeremiah, and Alexis

The Good—

--Spencer the chess master may finally get a chance to play him some Survivor now that he and his tribe mates are no longer shackled to a corpse (J’Tia).

--Sarah is in a great position as the swing vote.  It was actually a benefit that she is the only one of the Brawn on that tribe as it makes her far less threatening.  Whichever group she sides with goes to the merge with at least 3 people.  Sadly for males between the ages of 13 and 65, she’ll probably want to vote out Morgan and/or Alexis.

--If Kass, Tasha, and Spencer can actually set aside the past and stick together, they are going to control the game going forward.  None of them are physically threatening in any way and the early ass-kicking look to have put these guys in their place when it comes to pomposity.

The Bad—

--This was a very rough episode for Morgan.  Everyone now knows that she got the idol clue, they know she turned down a chance to feed her tribe, and they know she came up with a pretty plausible lie to cover her tracks. 

So after 1 day with her new tribe, everyone knows she is a selfish player and an accomplished bull-shitter who probably has the idol.  Not a good place to be even for a cheerleader….

--Watching Alexis and Morgan expose all the cracks in their tribe by needlessly trashing each other.  Girls!  You are tied 3-3 in numbers with the Brainy people!  You should be presenting a united front and cultivating Sarah!  Instead, they snipe at each other like 2 sorority sisters fighting over some dimwitted frat-boy who has family money. 

Solana Tribe:

Woo, Cliff, Trish, Jefra, LJ, Lindsey, and Tony

The Good—

--Trish was able to harness Tony’s innate fear of brown people and got him to vote off Cliff even though he was loyal, reasonable, skilled in challenges, and virtually guaranteed a Brawn final 6.  Trish knows she sucks and just pulled off a minor coup here.

--Even without Cliff, this team still looks much better on paper and should be able to run off a few wins before the merge.

--Not only did LJ withstand almost certain defeat for no other reason than he is a chowder-head, but he still has an idol in his pocket.  I have always claimed new Englanders are nothing more than a bunch of provincial bumpkins with superiority complexes and stupid accents and this latest development confirms it.

The Bad—

--Tony is an idiot.  It's one thing to do something dumb because you don't know any better but it is yet another thing to do something dumb when you know it's stupid and even tell the cameras as much. 

--Even though they still have a sizable chunk of the numbers, the brawn tribe is no more.  Tony and Trish have painted themselves into a corner.  In order to survive to the merge, they need to now start wiping out their ex-allies.  I don't like their chances when they run into a rejuvenates brains tribe with some of the pretty people on their side.