Survivor: One World, The Big Picture, Episode 7 – Stick to Those Guns

The other person who was potentially out of the voting loop was Tarzan, who was apparently still planning on voting for Kat. We learned a lot about Tarzan this week, and about how he's viewed by his tribe. The episode presented a "Tarzan is crazy and unpopular" view of him, but the Insider clips were slightly more balanced, although Chelsea did compare him to Redemption Island's Phillip.

Yet both Jonas and Chelsea, the two people most in conflict with Tarzan, said on Insider that they did like him – though Chelsea said he could be a completely different person from day to day. I'm seriously tempted to completely discount Tarzan's chances of winning and peg him as a jury goat, but it's possible he's more respected than we realize.

On the other hand, Jonas, Michael, and Leif all blamed Tarzan for losing the reward challenge. Leif's huge delay in getting under the first obstacle was considered a definite factor, but all three of the men felt they could have won if it hadn't been for Tarzan, who apparently spent most of his time taking pieces out that Jonas was putting in. Michael went so far as to say that he wanted to tell Tarzan to get out and let Jonas do it alone.

Tarzan is self-aware enough to know his own social issues. At Tribal Council, he acknowledged that he was out of his environment, and that he did better in the operating room. A couple of weeks back, when we learned that Tarzan has nominal aphasia, I speculated that he had automatically limited himself socially in order to avoid embarrassing situations. When he considered the operating room the place where his social skills are strongest, my suspicions were confirmed.

I have every respect for Tarzan for stepping out of his comfort zone and tackling a social game, when he knows his social skills are weak. But it's one hell of a handicap in this game.

I have less respect for Tarzan when it comes to his overall gameplan. On Insider, he explained that he had wanted the men to play with integrity and stay loyal to each other, but now they were falling apart. He pointed out that if they had followed his gameplan, "most of them" would have made the final five, which is undeniably true. The point Tarzan is missing is that "most of them" don't want to get as far as they can, they want to win – or as Jonas put it, "go big or go home."

Of course, Tarzan also claimed that the men started out as a meritocracy in which they were all equal, so he's missing the point of a lot of things, and while he might not know how to use "mercurial" in a sentence, he does embody that quality, judging by how many times he went back and forth on Jonas during the episode. This goes a long way to explain why people are so reluctant to align with him. And while he might seem like a prime contender for a finals goat, Michael said on Insider that he'd rather get rid of him now than deal with him for another twenty days.

What options does Tarzan have? He seemed confident that Jonas wasn't going home at the start of Tribal Council and perhaps came away thinking everybody changed their vote due to Jonas' disloyal behavior. In his interview, Jonas only mentioned six people who were in on the plan to vote out Kat, so where was Tarzan's majority coming from? Judging by the plan he discussed with Michael, it's quite possible Tarzan expected Alicia would be voting for Kat as well.

I doubt Tarzan can depend on Alicia, but she would do well to exploit his faith in her, and I'd love to know how she views him. Her intentions as aired on the episode are to go back with the girls, but we also know that Kim views the women's alliance as Plan B only. Meanwhile, when talking to Christina on Insider, Jonas said that Alicia was making deals with a different person every five minutes.

So whatever Alicia's plans are, things aren't looking good for her. People are viewing her as a schemer, and only Tarzan seems to consider her a desirable ally. Her best hope is that she and Tarzan are both kept around as non-threats for long enough that the two of them can sell their votes as a bloc, or that she can be a jury goat.

Michael is in a similar position, since nobody seems to trust him and sooner or later, his status as an immunity threat will become an issue. I think Michael is more perceptive than Alicia and certainly has more finesse when it comes to stirring the pot: e.g. when cheerily explaining to Jonas that he was out of the loop. On the other hand, he hasn't done much to dispel his image as a schemer.

Since Michael was so ready to drop Jonas and the men, I do wonder what deals he's got with the women. His confidence must be founded on something, surely? Or maybe he thinks he can just wriggle through to the end by pitting everybody against each other and winning immunities. I'm dubious.

Our third outsider is Christina, who might have been expected to get involved in the "Save Jonas" campaign. Jonas' secret scene on Insider provides all we really need to know. He did talk to her about coming over to the men, reminding her that the girls screwed her over once already. She was receptive to that, but she said she wanted to be sure that all the men were solid, because otherwise, she'd get scared off. Well, we know how solid the men turned out to be.

Christina stated that she would go with whoever had the stronger alliance, but I wonder how wise that was. Clearly she shouldn't attach herself to a sinking ship, but joining a strong alliance means that you're putting yourself on the bottom of an alliance that will be difficult to break into. In an ideal situation, you want to create a new alliance with yourself at the core. Ideal situations rarely happen, but there's something to be said for taking a risk and joining a minority in the hopes that you can encourage other people to make up the numbers.