Though at least one of the new Survivor competitors did her homework by learning how to start a fire without flint, another one threw her game plan out the window on the first day, and got sent packing for her trouble. Her original plan—to keep a low profile and rein in her natural tendency to prattle—was sound. People thought she was a little weird, and she came across as a weak link, but I think that at least one other player might have received a lot of votes if she hadn’t gone off the deep end during tribal council. She babbled. She rambled. And, just when everyone thought the worst was over, she interrupted Jeff’s call to vote to ramble and babble some more. Bad move. She should have kept her trap shut. If she had, the football coach might have gone home. He seems like a nice enough guy, and is probably a good strategist (why wasn’t he in charge of solving the puzzle?), but no one ever made the mistake of thinking an NFL coach, even at the peak of his career, would be physically strong. We didn’t get to see how well the young team did with the flint and fishing gear. That will say a lot about how well they’ll fare at this game.
I sort of hoped Lane would win Big Brother, but I can see the argument in favor of Hayden. He did win more challenges, and otherwise the two competitors were just about even. I was surprised by how close the vote was. It all came down to Enzo in the end. The after-show interviews in the back yard were hilarious, especially Britney’s. (I was pleased that she won the viewer’s choice award, by the way.) As she was being interviewed, Rachel was just an arm’s length away, laughing that crazy cackle of hers, and Britney just lost it. She said to the interviewer, “I thought I was away from that. Can you even hear what I’m saying?” Her frustration built until finally she said she had to get away and left the interview.
I’ve said this before, though, and I’ll say it again. I think they give the winner short shrift by waiting until the last five minutes to announce his/her name. He barely gets a chance to bask in the glory, and then he’s superseded by the people’s choice winner. It’s all too rushed. I like the way they do it on Survivor, where the winner is announced and then they do the recap with the losing contestants.
Only one gunshot fired on this week’s episode of Sons of Anarchy, so far as I can recall. That one was from the rifle of a mildly disoriented Hal Holbrook. Chucky got a brief moment, running around in his hospital gown ranting that he had come into the hospital to have a mole removed and they “cut my fingers off!” This was after Jax tried to get Tara to create a distraction so the SAMCRO dudes could interrogate the shooter. “We got it covered,” Clay said a second before Chucky’s performance. The guy buried up to his neck got off lucky, and the kidnapper met his fate in unexpected surroundings. That priest is one scary dude.
My favorite line of the evening came from smug Jacob Hale after he made a proposal to Sheriff Unser that Unser spurned. “Even if I’m the devil, it wouldn’t be the first time you shook my hand, Wayne.” Tig was hilarious this week. Turning around all the figurines because he thought they were staring at him. Then Gemma runs into him while he’s wearing a shortie gown and carrying a bottle of baby oil. When she asks him why, he says, “I’m not going to lie to you, Gemma. I’m a big man. A little bit of lube sometimes is just the humane thing to do.” Not to be outdone, Gemma shoots back, “I hope that’s the Guatemalan hottie in there and not my Dad.” This was just a short while before her dad shot Tig in the shoulder.
It was surprising just how badly SAMCRO sucked as bounty hunters, though. Next week Stephen King has his cameo (on his birthday, no less) as a cleaner who takes care of some messy business for Gemma. Click on the photo for a page with several other shots from his upcoming appearance.
My Storytellers Unplugged essay will appear first thing tomorrow morning. It’s on the subject of critique groups.
