Episode 9: The First 24 Days: A Closer Look
24 days into the game and only 8 players remain in the Barramundi tribe. Amber, Colby, Elisabeth, Jerri, Keith, Nick, Rodger, and Tina. A great deal has transpired during the first 24 days of this game down under. Alliances, camp life battles, winning/losing streaks, a pig killing, and a medical evacuation that completely and unexpectedly flipped the game. Some people are making strategic and impactful moves and others you forget are still in the running for the million dollars.
What better time is there for special episode to go behind the scenes and a little bit deeper?
For this blog post, I don’t feel a need to recap the recap. Check out the previous blog posts for my recaps of episode 1-8. Instead, for this blog I’m going to try something different. I’m going to watch the episode without stopping. Not for pictures, not for something I missed, not for something I want to quote, not for something I want to rewatch, etc, but rather take it in and see where the blog post takes me at the end of the 43 minute episode. This will be fun!
Before we begin…
HAVING A RECAP EPISODE is something that didn’t happen in Borneo. This is the first one of its kind. Makes you wonder why they did it. Right? Is it…Because, more Survivor, more better? To have more time with the characters who’ve been voted out? To have more time with the 8 remaining players? There was too much content for days 1-24 that we needed to a way to show it? Behind the scenes/deleted scenes was part of DVDs in 2001 so why not for TV shows? The network deciding to milk everything they could from season 2? My guess is that it was all of these and probably 137 other factors too. In 2001, I bet most people who watched the show probably loved it, but just like the game, in the back of their mind may have been thinking, how can we vote this episode out and get to the next one. If only they had been able to “skip” the episode like people can in 2021 to not interrupt their binge watching flow.
Let’s begin.
10 things learned from “The First 24 Days”
1 - We forget people.
Through 24 days there have been 7 Tribal Council eliminations and 1 medical evacuation. People like Debb were dead before they ever got started. Their personality stands out in a negative way and it is difficult to recover from. Someone has to be out first, targeted first, and scapegoated first. In the end, people like Debb or Kel are not with us long enough to make any lasting impact and thus we forget them.
2 - Colby Snores
It makes you wonder, could being a snorer get you eliminated in Survivor? Is that a “fireable” offense? Has anyone every been voted out in the history of the show because of snoring? Can snoring get under people’s skin enough to create a disdain for someone that could cause them to be voted out? Maybe, but certainly not if you look like Colby.
3 - Being a Chef is a Disadvantage
It’s easy to forget that Keith was a chef and thus held to an unbelievably high standard despite his kitchen consisted of an open flame, a pan, and some rice in the middle of the Australian Outback. In the end, it isn’t an advantage to be a chef. People expect a lot and there isn’t much you can do to live up to that. It can only create a target or cast a dark shadow over your game in the minds of the tribe.
4 - The “Kentucky Joe” Card Has Gotten Rodger Far
He is a farmer with limited experiences in life, limited exposure to the world, a fear of heights, but a giant heart. Rodger is the “father” figure in the tribe and contributed greatly to the morale at Kucha. Was he a liability in challenges? Of course. But, the “Kentucky Joe” card that he played up won the tribe over and he knows it. In the early seasons of Survivor, strategies to last in the game were still developing, but Rodger among the first to “take the game as it comes to him”. By recognizing his role, taking the game as it comes to him, and playing it up, Rodger went from being thought of as the weakest and biggest liability to a major asset in the tribe.
5 - An Easy Vote is an Easy Vote
Lesson here is, if someone is targeted for any reason, especially at the tribe’s first Tribal Council, it can and will be used against them. Ogakor votes out Kel after a whole beef jerky smuggling incident that seemed to be blown out of proportion. Kel became an easy target and was taken out with little objection. The same lesson applies to Mad Dog being voted out after her poor performance in the challenge. Ultimately, someone has to go and when there is an easy target for an easy vote, the tribe will likely vote that way. No need to rock the vote, I mean boat.
6 - Pig Killing Is Not For Me
Even the brief revisiting of the pig killing, I can’t say I could bring myself to do it. Did it help the tribe immensely by feeding them and boosting morale? Absolutely. Could it help your game? 100%. Could I actually take a knife and take out Pumba? Probably not.
7 - Jerri Apologizes to Keith
Sitting around the fire, upon Tina’s request, Ogakor said nice things about everyone. Jerri and Keith made up and Jerri apologized. She even said she'd love to have Keith’s cooking. Bigger lesson may being getting a better picture of Tina’s motherly influence over the tribe by getting the tribe to share that moment with each other, bury the hatchet, and unify.
8 - Medical Evacuations Grab The Audience
They transcend the game. They effect the audience emotionally. They turn the game upside down. They turn characters on the screen to real people. They can create captivating television. Sometimes you can’t take your eyes off of a disaster.
9 - Twists Create Conflict…We Like That
The creation of Barrimundi forces both tribes out of the camps that they had gotten comfortable with. Shaking the game up makes the game interesting, keeps the tribe off balance, and levels the playing field. Twists can be too little, too much, and just right. This one for season 2 was just right.
10 - Winning Immunity Trumps All
Winning immunity keeps you safe. It ensures you cannot be voted out at Tribal Council. It guarantees you 3 more days in the game. It allows you time to let the game take a new direction. Keith has won two straight individual immunity challenges leading up to this recap episode. The first, a gift from Tina. The second, in a game of chance. Nonetheless, in both cases, Keith takes his name off the list of people who can be voted out and the focus shifts to others. The lesson here is sometimes you need to win immunity, like Keith, to stay in the game, and sometimes you need to give up immunity to ensure the bigger story of the game is being written in your favor, like Tina.
Looking forward to the remaining 18 days and episodes of Season 2. Be sure to oulike, outcomment, and outshare the rest.
The blog has spoken!
