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Episode Ate Rantings "Fang needs a miracle to turn things around!"..."We're starting over!"


(New Guideline: "The winner will not be made too boring...")



Kota




Bob UTR1

Bob, (off-camera), "It's the apple in the Garden of Eden."
Ken, "Yeah."

Bob was the first to say it at the feast. But, he got no recognition for it.

Loyal coattail rider Bob is outta ideas and outta luck.



Crystal CP4


Crystal told us she was going to use her athletic abilities to win, but her best moves have been when she uses her head.

Crystal, "Hopes are high right now... if there's a merge, hopefully we can outwit, outplay, and outlast the current Kota members, so that we can go as far as possible."
"I told Marcus... I would not write his name down... that's me playing the game..."

Her TC explanation lays out how to see Fang and Kota, as the dysfunctional but funky Projects, versus the civilized but, hidden nastiness of The Suits. So, I guess that supposed to mean Fang- dysfunctional but cool and Kota- clean and polished, but bad.



Ken MOR2

"I see the note about the idol... and the idol is more tempting than food."


"The little guy takes out the bully..."

Unlike the Onions, Fang knows the importance of an idol. Kenny's story this ep is surprisingly shallow on close examination. The shy nerdy underdog gets his moment of glory in taking out another smooth operator. But he is shown as just one of the underdog group in operation. The comment hat the idol is more interesting than food could be a significant one, though. But, I feel I need to see more.



Marcus CPN5

"These people /break/ are /break/ so stupid! /break/ I got ten people to throw an immunity idol into the ocean. It's never been done! It was a perfect way to make the situation much easier for the Kota Six.... Because there's no extra idol floating around to really screw up any votes."

We supposed to crow over his arrogant and "stupid" statement, because we know Sugar has an idol.
The editors made sure they created an arrogant confessional by splicing "so stupid!" into it.



Marcus, "... I don't need the Immunity Idol. I have great relationships in this game! And that's honestly what I'm banking on. Because I know that no Immunity Idol gets me to the finals."
The inclusion of this confessional will reinforce Marcus' humiliation at the end. Again, more stupidity and arrogance.



Marcus, " Crystal...this is a person I can be perfectly straight up with... This is me crumpling up my play book..."
Jeff's TC question will get Marcus to repeat this again.

Crystal, "Marcus is playing the nice guy, but he's a schemer. The game is outwit, outplay and you can't outwit Crystal cox, baby!"



Randy CPN4

"Think about what I say, because everything I say is not meant to be funny.

"...These six, mowing down those four. Ya know, this is the heart of who's left, the six of us."
And this is the heart of this episode. Arrogant confidence versus the desperate underdogs.

Randy,"I'm sorry if I'm sounding arrogant, but it was a joke! I gave myself 20 seconds. I think I took seven... I'm King of Gabon!"

This was an interesting scene sequence:
Randy, "....I am the new King of Gabon. I'm sorry but I rule! This ocean, it's mine!"


A shot of Randy holding the bottle up, before wading out with Marcus.


...Followed by an individual shot of Matty and then Ken:





Susie CP4


Corinne, "...Susie...the woman is 47 years old. What could she possibly have over me!"
I think I was completely wrong to stick Susie with an N for negative SPV last episode. Every time she has been shown in the game, she has given reasonable explanations for her efforts to survive. She might not be a strategic genius, but she hasn't been shown as either crazy or particularly stupid. Rather, as reasonable and doing her best.

In fact, this episode she is shown to be aware of her position in the game. And much more so than Marcus.
Susie, "I feel like I have a lot of power right now, because I can if I really want to, swing with Kenny and Crystal and take the power away from Marcus and Bob."
And that's exactly what she does.

Susie, "I gotta get to that top 3. I have to!"



Fang




Charlie UTR1

Charlie has little more than narration this episode. But this sequence of his dropping his immunity sticks with a smirk on his face, links him to the theme of arrogant overconfidence among the Kota Six.

Charley's as guilty of N behavior as the rest of the Onions. He just didn't have enough of anything to rate a tone.



Corinne MORN2

O-o-kay-y. She promised to be a bitch and she is fulfilling that promise.

"...That crazy bitch, Susie!..."

"...Susie...I plan on burying her... alive! I'm a very vindictive person and I will get my revenge."


J.P, "Matty, single-handedly wins immunity for the Fa-ang tribe."
Corrine, "It's Fang!"
J.P., (slightly displeased), "Fang."

The arrogance of the Onions continues to get uglier.



Sugar MORP2

Still the sweetheart, but still being shown as thinking and feeling. Not enough to rate a CP this time. She still has that Courtney feeling. Why so much story, unless sitting at that Final 3?

J.P, (recap), "...Sugar surprised everyone by stabbing her closest ally in the back. ...physical force, Ace..."

Opening sequence comments:
"...Kenny's been completely honest with me..."

Sugar, "You can't tell them I have the idol."
Matty, "No one will know you have the idol."
Sugar, "We're good! We're starting over!"

Marcus' "stupid people" comment at the beach is followed immediately by Sugar's confessional:

"Throwing the Immunity Idol out to sea, yeah, it was a beautiful, lovely thought and everything, but that is a very prized possession in this game and /break/ luckily, I have one."
The editor's make us aware that another fang is aware of the idol's importance.

It also highlights Marcus and Randy's arrogant missteps:

Randy, "There is a one in a billion chance that Sugar is, like, a rocket scientist and she's hiding the idol... "

After Matty tells her that Kenny lied about Ace:
"...I feel awful that I got rid of Ace. ...I think I may have made a big mistake and I feel really bad."



Matty CPP4
Holy smokes, does this guy get a lot of stuff this ep.

"I'm glad I stuck to my promise to Ace...I'm praying for this game to change."

"...You guys are all survivors!"

"My heart was pounding, 'cause I couldn't tell you the feeling seeing that endless amount of food. It was so nice, it was so nice. It was unforgettable!"
(I still don't know what to make of this confessional. A focus on food at a pivotal moment in the game is usually not great, but he does have more to this edit.)

He doesn't mention Eden and the apple first, but he's the only one to get a confessional about it:
"...That apple pretty much represented the apple in Eden and you bite that apple and you'd be exiled from Eden!... and nobody wants to be thrown out of Eden."

Later at New Fang, just before the IC:

"At this point in the game, I'm very concerned about my, uh, time here and I don't know how much I have left... Every day seems to be valuable, so, /break/ today I'm gonna give it my all."
This comment puts the Immunity Challenge in much more than a "just reporting" edit. It has started to focus on the challenge winner and his motivations, before the IC scenes have started. This was totally unnecessary.


J.P., "Matty, single-handedly wins reward for the Fang tribe!"

Randy, "I mean, it was good to win, but it really didn';t matter. In fact, if we had lost, I'm absolutely sure that Matty would have been going home."


Matty, "I'm pretty happy with myself right now, that I, uh, managed to pull that off. Now the curiosity is killing me. What's gonna happen on Kota, because it's totally up in the air!"


So, Matty closes out Fang for the episode. He entered the episode hoping for a change in the game and he is shown as creating that change and avoiding certain elimination.

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The Onions are shown to be arrogant in their assumption of dominance and the Fang are shown to be starting over and finally working together.
The way it's edited, you could give all Ps to the old fangs and all Ns to the Onions.


Winner rankings:

With Marcus leaving the stage, it's opened up a bit.
I'm going to take the "Wait til the merge ep" option.

Sugar: I see her as going far, Courtney-like. But, like Courtney, I don't think she will win, but she can't be eliminated just yet.

Crystal: She is getting some of the redemption she would need to win, but it's sort of like "high tide lifts all boats". Her bitchy snarl at Matty, when he tried to motivate the tribe to get some chores done, along with her other wildly emotional scenes, (not to mention, cough tenpoundtennisshoes cough), should still eliminate her. But, what the hell, I'll keep all options til next week.

Randy: He had a chance, but this ep, he got the same, arrogant, ugly edit that was given to all his alliance. Could a villain win? Yeah. But, this ep, Randy's comments have been missing the mark, especially his shrugging off the two immunity idols. If he was to win, he'd have to have some plan other than telling Matty that he thinks his new Kota friends are "cool".

Kenny: I thought Kenny was looking really good, after my first watch. But, on rewatch, his edit lacked depth.

He really wanted that idol, but he was busted by Charlie. Sugar finds out that Kenny set her up to boot Ace and it makes her cry.

Crystal tells Kenny that he's the target for TC. Kenny focuses on mean Marc-Ace, and all the golden boys that he hides from in his basement. So he gets his triumph, but where is his long game?

Matty: Okay, now it's starting to smell like Fang spirit. J.P. tells us in the recap that fang needs a miracle. In the opening segment, Matty tells us that he's praying for a game change and "You guys are all survivors!" Now he's Mr.Honesty, "...I'm glad I stuck to my promise to Ace..." Crystal tells him he's got a new start if he just keeps from letting others mess with his head.

He gets his miracle and saves his own life by "winning immunity for his tribe single-handedly." His win is set up with his confessional before the IC and wrapped up with his confessional afterwards.

Top of the List:
Matty

Still a good possibility:
Kenny

Too many negatives to be good candidates:
Crystal
Randy

Has lots of good, long story, but probably just going to make F-3 or F-2:
Sugar

Eliminated:
Corinne: Too negative, too neglected.
Charley: Too neglected.
Susie: Too neglected, too negative

Oh yeah:
Bob: Not earning the Yau-Man physics award, I'm afraid.

Ah, yes, Bob.