Hunter, We Hardly Knew Ye

Once again, Survivor 4 is rocking more than it’s predecessors. But all is not tranquil in the gorgeous island paradise. Misfortune and accidents seem to befall our remaining castaways. Luckily for Rotu, and that hunky Robert from Queens (hey, I gotta root for the local boys!), they have a nurse on board. Unluckily for Nurse John he seems to have a way with the sea critters-NOT! First he gets stung by a sea urchin, which my sister can tell you is quite painful. Then the poor guy gets his hand eaten up by an eel. Who thought eels had teeth? I did. I see them at work in our fish tanks. Those little buggers have sharp teeth. Well, if there is justice and what goes around comes around John will have a Lamprey for supper. Gotcha!

Meanwhile Maraamu is falling apart at the seams. Maybe it is like the brilliant Snickers commercials that have been running during the show – hunger is making them do crazy things. I cannot understand the decision to vote off Peter unless that Boston accent was simply too annoying (“Paaark the Caaar in Haaarvard Yaaard”). Yeah he was New Agey, but he was also strong. I think from now on, all Survivors will be trained not only in first aid, but given a copy of David Bloomberg’s tome What Survivors Should Have Learned and told to memorize it. The first rule of Survivor – and I gotta confess I like the show because of the sociological aspect, not the chess aspect – is until the merger you KEEP the strong and eliminate the weak. Thus the tribe should have voted off Sarah and Patricia, but I don’t care in what order. Learn from Survivor: Australia. Mitchell even admitted they should not have voted off Kel when they did.

But for some reason the tribe split. Actually for two reasons, but I won’t go there. I’m sick of looking at them. And split it did. And the strongest person on the tribe was Hunter. Perhaps it always had been Hunter. I think he was a good guy, he is a Fed Ex pilot for heavens sake – his tribemates knew he would be OK unless he found a volleyball.

Maraamu’s problem is everyone wanted to be the alpha male. (Gosh I hate that term.). How about this, everyone wanted to be a leader. Again, if you watched the show as much as we reality TV addicts have and studied every episode like someone else would chess match between Boris Spasky and Bobby Fischer, you would realize: Being a leader is not necessarily good. Staying under the radar is.

And after three Survivors, plus several in other countries, you would know that after the merge, one of the things that you need on your side beside luck, is how you deal with other people. Sean said he was casting out Hunter to outwit him. I wonder if Sean, who I know is an intelligent person (go to the CBS website and see his audition video, he is one heck of a teacher), was thinking too far ahead. Who is going to catch food for you? Yeah, Hunter was bossy, but someone needed to do it. Neither Rob nor Sean seemed to understand what survival skills were necessary. And unless Mark Burnett pulls a switcherooney like people seem to think, Gina is next and then the tribe will have four people. If that scenario plays itself out, they will cannibalize each other to get to the two members for the merge. And do you think they will make it in the new tribe? Nope. Those two will be the first evicted, leaving a bloc of Rotus on the jury. Like the dodo, the tribe just made itself extinct. Which is a shame, because I like Vee, and thought she would be the fifth or sixth from last eliminated, just missing the final four. I liked Rob until he said he was the Godfather. Hmm. Someone please put a horse’s head in his bed And Rob, get rid of the Boston accent and develop a Joisey one. It would work better. But seriously, The Godfather gave commands but he did it and people respected him. I don’t think people respect Rob. I think they are using him. I respect Sean. Being a teacher, that commands respect. I have been to Harlem many times, and I really admire him for being such a wonderful teacher there to mold young minds. Even Sarah – well I don’t think she is so bad. I wish she would cover those bad boys up so we can see what she is really like when the attention is away from them. They all seem like nice people who lost themselves in the game. Like Lord of the Flies – which this game does resemble – the game takes the Ralphs and changes them, destroying the weak like the Piggys. The trick is to stay strong like the Ralph character, bend slightly like a flower bending in the wind or during a rainfall – but not breaking. This tribe is going to break. Big time. What a shame.

And where did that leave Hunter? Hunter seems to be a good man. He is definitely fit – and this female thinks he is pretty hot. He seemed to be an intelligent man who understood the rules of the game. Probably with the exception of Gina and Patricia, he was the only one who really worked and understood this. I feel bad for him, he had a decent personality, only we never really got to see it. If there were any justice, Hunter should have been in the final four. He had the personality, the skills, and the strength. It was just sheer bad luck that he was placed in this tribe. If it means anything, Hunter, I am really sorry. You should have heard me scream at my TV set the other night. But basically, Hunter, you were a good man who we hardly got a chance to know. And that is our loss.

Susan is still in shock over this latest expulsion, but cannot wait for the next episode. You can reach her at sschechter@earthlink.net.

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