I watched all three Sook Jai Pagonging episodes tonight, and this one definitely was the strongest of the three. Loved ones episodes are a great standby for the show to fall back on to make sure it has a storyline for the week, and this one is one of the better ones. Essentially from start to finish, the whole thing focused on the loved ones. They take a risk in doing that that an uninteresting pair might win the reward challenge and then get a bunch of air time.. but luckily for them, Helen won, which is awesome. I'm a sucker for emotional episodes and loved ones visits, so I thought this was a really enjoyable, fun episode and one of the better ones of the season up to this point. By the time of the Immunity Challenge the emotion faded (when you bring out loved ones for a third time in two episodes, it does kind of lose its effect), but still, making them compete with their loved ones for Immunity was a new thing and Thailand is above all else a season about production trying new things, so I get why they did it and still enjoyed watching it, just not for the emotional reasons of the first couple loved ones reveals. The final six are a pretty old group of people by Survivor standards, and I think that that's part of what made the loved ones visits so emotional -- these are people who are mature enough to really have strong ties to their loved ones and appreciate the magnitude of the experience.
Anyways, cast thoughts:
- Brian and Ted didn't really do much this episode.
- Jan, as usual, did only one thing this episode, but it was an awesome thing: Gave a confessional in which she joked (was it a joke??) about trying to listen to Helen and her husband have sex. Way to go, Jan! Also, her accent is adorable.
- Clay definitely is a much nicer guy than he has a reputation for being. I know that in various S-Oz interviews I've heard members of his tribe say that he was a total family man, and you can really see that here. He and his wife probably said "I love you" to one another more than all the other pairs combined. D'awww.
- Helen was pretty much the star of this episode. I gotta say, I think Helen is one of the best confessionalists the show has ever had. It's not because she's /quotable/ most of the time like some of the show's other great confessional-givers, but she's just such an over-the-top human being who has a tendency to enunciate every single syllable of every word of every sentence -- especially when talking about Clay Jordan -- that it's much better than listening to, I don't know, Carter try and stumble through a single word. But of course what really made Helen the star of the episode was her loved ones visit. I really don't even have to explain it here, and I couldn't even if I tried; just go back and watch all of the genuine, raw emotion she has during the challenge. Helen might have less of a filter than any other contestant ever on Survivor, and I love her for it.
- Jake is gone. :( I'll miss him a lot. He was, like the rest of Sook Jai, basically a non-entity early on in the season, but unlike the others, he picked up a lot in later episodes and it was enough for me to like him and really feel that he had a complete story arc. He was the leader of the young, fit tribe that dominated early on but then imploded, and was forced to scramble for his safety from the bottom position. He made a great effort and was an underdog I really rooted for during a few of his last episodes. In his boot episode, we saw him come to terms with the fact that he's being voted out, saying that seeing his wife reminded him of what was really important, and it was a really touching and fitting end to his storyline to see this guy who was trying so hard to stick around recognize and accept his inevitable fate. Similar in a sense to Lindsey Richter's exit two seasons prior -- though of course in her case it was less of a morph from "badass, scrappy underdog" than a morph from "batshit insane trainwreck", the general idea of someone really wanting to stay but eventually realizing that it's okay to lose Survivor is present in both of their storylines. (This is another reason why I really liked this episode -- there was no manufactured suspense about who might go home.) I watched Jake's full final words on the DVD as well, and they reaffirmed my belief that he's basically one of the nicest, most stand-up guys on Survivor. It was a lot of really eloquent, really positive stuff about how great the experience was, and then at the end of it he just sat there and listed in a row every single thing that he was going to appreciate in his everyday life more than he did before Survivor. What a fantastic human being. I'm really happy he was a part of this cast. < 3
Just watched episode 10, Penny's boot, in my Thailand rewatch.
Another kind of slow episode, though not nearly as slow as the prior one, because this one had a lot more character stuff -- Brian being scared of elephants, Clay's strategy, and more focus on Jake/Penny than on Ted/Brian made it an episode I enjoyed much more. Still kind of a filler one, but one that actually taught me about the players rather than building up suspense for an event that didn't occur.
- Man, I know Brian wins at the end, but I'm still almost doubting it and thinking Clay wins. This episode, we saw him talk a /lot/ about his strategy to win the jury vote: he talked about making sure he was the one to bring food back so he'll look better in the end, and he talked about how he's dealing with the Sook Jai members before they go home so that he'll get their votes in the end (which he ultimately does.) The season definitely feels like it's setting up for Brian or Clay to take a fall. Since they don't and since Brian is the more obvious winner, it really feels like they're setting up Clay to sweep in and blindside Brian by winning at the end. In any case, I really enjoy Clay more than I thought on the rewatch. He's funnier than I thought but he's also a lot savvier than I figured he was. I think I'll add him to the very small list of runners-up I wish had won over the winner.
- The other person I'm most invested in is Jake. Watching him keep fighting as the underdog creates at least some kind of week-to-week suspense, and I admire him not giving up even though it's pretty blatant that a Chuay Gahn will win the game. He's also just a likable guy in general. He was (probably?) the leader of the tribe that was dominating early on, but now that he's in an underdog position, he's adapting to that perfectly too. He's another character I'm enjoying much more this time around.
- When Brian and Clay brought back stuff from their reward, we got a flattering shot of Jan getting drunk and saying in a confessional that she didn't like having to share the beer. < 3
- Penny, being a member of Sook Jai, got a really minimal edit, and out of her/Ken/Erin, I think she's the one who most could have delivered in some other season or with some other edit. I think it's kind of hilarious how prior to this episode, we never actually saw her doing any manipulating, but we constantly got confessionals to the effect of "PENNY'S MANIPULATING EVERYONE! SHE'S USING HER CHARM TO GET AHEAD! DON'T TRUST HER!" Meanwhile I just sat here like... wait, /Penny/? The one who hasn't said or done anything other than have a cute accent? /She's/ the one everyone hates? Why? Pretty inexplicable and entertaining storyline. But in this episode, we did see that she actually had a somewhat conniving streak to her; she seemed to be a sweet girl on the surface, but also was cunning enough to try to take out Jake in an era in which you typically didn't turn on your allies or openly manipulate people like that. She had more fight in her than the edit showed and I would have liked to see more from her, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. She can be one of the classic "What if..?" characters who could have shined a lot brighter if things had been a little different.
Ted, Brian, and Helen didn't do anything worth noting this episode. I mean, Brian was visible, but other than being scared of elephants it was the typical stuff we expect from Brian at this point.
Just watched the merge ep of Thailand in my rewatch after an inexplicably long break.
This was a pretty slow and anti-climactic merge episode, but that's not really surprising; the real excitement came in the faux-"merge" episode two weeks prior. By this point the lines were already clearly drawn due to the long pre-merge and the tribes had already been together, so once they were formally merged, it changed little to nothing. It wasn't really a merge episode in the traditional sense.
This episode had some good moments. The opening scene set up the Chuay Gahn > Sook Jai storyline so it's nice to see that that was carried throughout the whole season. I especially liked the way they handled the loved ones challenge and thought it did a good job characterizing lots of the contestants. Helen, Ted, and Clay all stood out as people with sweet loved ones tapes, and obviously C.C. Heidik is one of the best loved ones ever. < 3 Clay Jordan of all people somehow winning the first Individual Immunity challenge over Ken is also a high point. Other than that, though, this episode basically built up to "WILL TED GO HOME??" and then... he predictably didn't, so it was mostly a chore of an episode that kind of killed the momentum of the powerful Robb -> Shii Ann -> Erin episodes. I hope the next two are stronger. I'm okay with predictable outcomes to episodes, but not when they come after a lot of filler building up to something that doesn't happen; it makes me wonder what the point was of getting the audience's hopes up, because then you just wasted a bunch of time to build suspense among people who are already tuning in and giving you ratings anyway. :/ So definitely a weak episode, but still not /bad/. Just dull at a lot of points.
Thoughts on the cast:
- Jan got exactly one moment in this episode: She talked about how her cleavage was hanging out of her clothes. < 3 Truly Jan Gentry was Sandy before Sandy.
- Helen was pretty low-vis, but she had, in typical Helen fashion, a super over-the-top emotional reaction to her loved ones tape, and that was pretty cute. Also, we saw her talking about recipes again. < 3
- Ted is a nice guy and I kind of like him and his confessionals, but he definitely got way too much air time this episode. I guess it's because he was the decoy boot? But, again, that's my problem with decoy boots. And maybe it's to build up him getting voted out before the rest of his tribe, I don't know. I have to give him props for being the first black male to be represented in a wholly non-stereotypical light on this show.. I just wish it were someone a bit more interesting doing it with a bit less air time so that we could see more Helen and Jan.
- I don't really know how I feel about Brian. I think that when all is said and done, I'll lean towards liking him because I like the /idea/ of him as a character, but he's so predictable a winner and occasionally cringeworthy with his lack of charisma that I can't fully get behind him. I don't loathe him as much as a lot of people do but I'm really not in love with him either. The content of his confessionals is good but the delivery isn't, which can be frustrating.
- I'm actually really rooting for Clay to win, which I wasn't expecting at all. I thought he was just a funny guy who gave good confessionals -- which he did this episode with his impression of Jake and his raging boner for C.C. Heidik -- but underneath his "I hate everyone and everything" veneer in confessionals, he's actually a pretty solid guy. He got more focus than anyone but Ted when it came to the loved ones visit and it was really sweet and unexpected to someone so crass get so emotional. He's a good guy and it would have been a much better storyline if Brian had underestimated him and he had somehow won, but I guess if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.
Related, that's a problem I'm having with this season, with this episode in particular -- we saw Jake saying stuff about how it'd be to Clay's benefit to take out Brian and we definitely got footage about how people need to take Brian out, which makes it feel like they're setting up for Brian to get dethroned... but then it doesn't happen and he's just a predictable winner. :/
- Penny seems like a sweetheart. I don't know why everyone else in the game seems to hate her so much, though that wasn't as present in this episode as it has been in others.
- Ken has a cool accent. That's about all I got to say on him. I think he maybe /could/ have been a good character, being an NYC cop during that time in American history and, again, having the accent, but because he was on Sook Jai he was never really explored and I can't bring myself to care too much about someone who had zero content during their stay just because I like his voice.
- Jake's stories are fun. He's trying to fit in, which is adorable, but he's so oblivious about how people are perceiving him, which is entertaining. < 3 I'm happy he ends up being the last Sook Jai standing.
Cast ranking so far:
1. Robb
2. Shii Ann
3. Tanya
4. Jed
5. John
6. Erin
7. Ken
8. Stephanie
9. Ghandia
