So it's May sweeps and thus time for the end of another fun-packed season of (insert ominous pause) Survivor. Here's a link to the TWOP recaps. I think Palau's been one of their best runs in a while. They actually managed to come up with several interesting twists that took the episodes off in unexpected directions, something's that's often not been the case. There have been plenty of seasons where it just became a slow crawl towards the inevitable. And at least one where I gave up before the end. One of the things I've enjoyed most about this season is that there have been several players who mostly seem to understand, y'know, that they're playing on a freaky-ass game show. The now-departed Gregg had one of the better grasps of the meta-game. And the decision by Tom and Ian to force a tie and take their chances with randomness as over against the certainty of losing if they sat on their asses and did nothing... well, given how many times I've had to watch people completely miss that moment, it was refreshing to say the least. Not that it's all been perfection and loveliness. Altho many will disagree, I found Steph supremely annoying. As I find all contestants who come off convinced that they somehow "deserve" to win. And of course the continuing presence of Katie and her do-nothing strategy of coat-tail riding, attempted backstabbing and high moral dudgeon is a dispiriting reminder of several winners from previous seasons who successfully employed that strategy. It's all too often been true that, when called on to vote for a winner, people will petulantly refuse to give the money to the one who outplayed and outwitted them, instead rewarding someone whose major effort was to make no decisions and let others do the heavy lifting and long knife wielding.
And while it'd be nice to see Tom win (c'mon -- best Survivor evah!... the man killed a shark with a pointed stick) I think they might have been setting up his coming-up-short on tonight's episode, with the stuff about him bullying Katie, and suggesting to Ian that strong-arming her was the only way to keep her on their side. I'm always wondering why they're showing us what they're showing us.