An “Insider” Look at Survivor: Samoa, Episode 9, Part 1 – “With That One Move, This Game Has Turned into Exactly What I Wanted It to Be”

A Well-Oiled Machine

Dave discusses his thoughts on voting out Erik and Galu's future in the game: “Right now, Galu is a smooth-running machine. And that was exactly the game that I wanted to play. And that is why I knew I had to get rid of Erik. I mean I knew it days before it happened.”

He was just surprised that he got everyone to agree with him so easily. When it happened, it was like greased lightning. Everything slid into place so easily. This account was verified by Kelly when she got to Ponderosa. She said the whole plan fell into place in just five minutes. “And now, with that one move, this game has turned into exactly what I wanted it to be.”

It can be very difficult to get seven people moving together in formation, Dave says. It can be like herding cats. This isn't the military with all of their training. It's not a school with a planned curriculum. “This is Survivor, where everybody has their own agenda.”

Luckily, Dave has been put with a group of people with similar agendas to his own. The girls want to see their families. He wants to see his family. The guys want to win. He wants to win. He thinks they can work together and he feels he can facilitate that.

I don't know why the rest of Galu thinks that Erik was causing dissension in their ranks. I don't know if I'm just being dense or if we just weren't shown his rabble rousing. What I do know, though, is that more than one person feels this way.

A Recipe for Success

John tries to identify what makes Galu a winning tribe and Foa Foa a losing one. He says all of the challenges have been different. Because of this, it's not so easy to point out just one thing that makes a winner or loser. It comes down to Galu just being “better.”

Galu worked well together. John has been on teams all his life and he thinks he had a large part in forming the Galu group dynamic. He knows how to lead as well as to be led. They worked well together.

When it came to the latest reward challenge, Dave and John were on a team together. They aren't idiots and they aren't weak. John feels he is faster than anyone else out there. He had to carry the coconuts back by himself because Kelly couldn't keep up. They still finished just behind the other team.

The other team had four guys and they still couldn't move the coconuts as fast as his team did. Physically they can keep up and on the mental side, they are just that good. They work well together and that was their recipe for success.

All or Nothing

Jaison says this is high-risk, high-reward game play. He says it may have a 30% chance at success. He is referring to the idea of letting everyone vote for Russell. He just doesn't know if it will work.

He likens this ploy to going to Vegas and putting everything on black and seeing what happens. He thinks if it doesn't work, Galu will stick together and pick Foa Foa off one after another.

Right now he's hungry and tired and doing all he can to stay in the game. He's miserable. If, though, they lose tonight, he will be even more miserable.

He's not afraid. He's actually even more excited to see what will happen next. He's so excited at the thought of seeing the looks on their faces tomorrow morning if this works out.

“It's good. This is good. If I'm gonna go out, on a four-man team, this is how I want to go out. I want to go out making a big play.” He wants to play for all the marbles and then go eat a pizza. Worst case scenario is that he loses and gets to go to Ponderosa and eat all the food he wants.

Jaison's goal since day thirteen has been to not go home unless he did his all. He doesn't want to go out on a stretcher. He doesn't want to go home hurt. He wants to go home because someone votes him out. If he has to be miserable for ten more days before they vote him out, so be it. When that happens, he'll go back to his life.

I was just talking about this idea with a friend today. Russell and Jaison may lose, but they will leave having done their best. So many people end up in Ponderosa with regrets for what they should have done. They wish they had had the guts to make the aggressive move, but they didn't. These two guys will know they did all they could to last as long as possible. If they lose, it won't be for lack of trying.

Eating Rat

Shambo is not happy with her tribe for eating the rat. She tells us she knows that some of them are hungry. However, they could live on hermit crabs instead of eating a skinny rat. A disease-infested and disease-carrying rat.

She's been hungry, too. She's not hungry now because she ate so well yesterday. She feels like a desert camel with her barrel full of food. “But, uh … you don't eat rat. Okay? You don't eat rat. You do not eat rat. Sick. Super-duper sick. Just … wow!”

Shambo thinks the people who ate the rat are lucky they are not in the hospital now. “So for all you people out there who are thinking about eating a rat … do not eat rat. That's my message.”

Sorry, I have to take a break now to change my dinner plans. Be back in a minute.

…

Back again. I'm not sure why Shambo's so offended. It's not like they tied her down and forced her to eat it. Just be glad they got something to eat and they didn't have to take any from your share of food. The more rat they eat, the more crab left for you. Deal with it.

Trusting Shambo

Russell lounges on a rock near the water as he talks to us. He tells us he trusts Shambo and her word 100%. He trusts Natalie just as much. He always trusted Shambo since he first met her. He thought, even when they were opposite tribes, that he would like to ally with her.

Trusting Shambo might be his downfall, but he doesn't think so. If she tells you something, that's the way it is. He asked her to tell him she would not vote against him and she said there was no way she would write his name down. He believes her.

Shambo wants to play the moral game. Some people go far with that. That's her game. He's not trying to play that game. I'm shocked! “She's probably gonna be pretty pissed off at me when she sees what kind of game I'm really playin'. I'm playin' the lyin', cheatin', stealin' game.”

He wants to outwit everyone. He wants to confuse them. Keep them wondering what he's really saying and doing. He tells John that Monica wants him out. He tells Monica that John wants her out. That's what Erik did. He's gone because he did that. With Erik and Russell doing this, they were really shook up.

Although this answers my earlier question about why everyone disliked Erik (thank you, Russell), it is hardly an endorsement of this as a successful strategy. After all, Erik was just voted out and you are now a permanent walking target.