S:13 - Saddle up, Cao Boi

October 20, 2006 · Filed Under popmedia

For a double elimination episode, there really wasn’t a whole lot of excitement and/or intrigue. The challenge was fun, as hand-to-hand combat is always an interesting thing to watch play out. Candice and Cristina (and to a lesser extent, Ozzy) were the standouts, as they proved to be double-tough.

In terms of game strategy, there were only two significant plot lines IMO…

1) Cao Boi’s “Plan Voodoo” to smoke out the hidden individual immunity — This was, surprisingly, a very lucid piece of strategy. That he wasn’t able to pull it off because he misidentified the possible owners of the immunity is secondary (although confiding in the person who did/does hold the immunity was a blunder…). It was a nice little piece of strategy, and given slightly different circumstances, he might’ve actually been able to pull it off.

2) Aito, quite simply, blundered when they “kidnapped” Nate instead of Cristina. I was stunned that they didn’t act on the info that Cristina was the scapegoat & desired elimination. IMO, the smart play would’ve been to save her, and force the Raro core to eat one of its own. It’s further proof that even smart tribes/players do stupid things in this game. Boneheads…

That Cao Boi & Cristina were voted off was not a surprise. Cao Boi was just an annoying little dude — entertaining to a certain extent, but undoubtedly annoying to the larger group (as evidenced by his misguided attachment to the group immunity idol). Cristina’s elimination, otoh, doesn’t make as much sense. That she annoyed Adam & Jenny is just a silly reason for elimination at this stage of the game. Frankly, the women would’ve been better served if they had put their petty annoyances aside & tossed one of the guys (Adam, if I had my way). But Raro, I think it’s clear, is populated by idiots.

It’s also fascinating to see how, at least for some folks, the race card is still very much in play. Cao Boi’s worry about the power of the Caucasian tribe was interesting. I’m not sure how it’ll continue to play out, but I do think that at some point before the end of the game we will see it rear it’s head again.

-ghp

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