Survivor: Gabon Episode 7 Temptations – Playing the Ace

This week’s episode of Survivor showed two similar temptations – the choice between two ways of voting. Both the Onion Alliance and Sugar had important decisions to make, with temptations on both sides. But those weren’t the only temptations the players faced in Gabon.

Several times, I’ve commented on Randy being tempted to speak his mind. Considering that he doesn’t think much of anybody – not just in Gabon, but I suspect also in life – he does a good job for the most part of resisting the temptation to be honest, at least most of the time. This week, we saw several other players put to this test.

When Crystal made the incredibly boneheaded move of knocking over the rice, I have no doubt that the rest of her tribe was tempted to rant, rave, and yell at her. The Fang tribe was short on rice anyway. They absolutely could not afford to lose a single grain. Everyone kept quiet, resisting the temptation to complain. Of course, that wasn’t enough for Crystal – she complained about the looks on their faces.

When it came time for the next meal, Crystal declined to eat, saying she didn’t want to take away anyone else’s food. She clearly wanted them to beg her to go ahead and eat, but no one took her up on it. Frankly, I don’t blame them. Crystal made a mistake that affected everybody else; by passing up a meal, she somewhat mitigated the circumstances. What she should not have done was sulk about it or complain about it further at tribal council. If she didn’t really want to give up a meal, she shouldn’t have offered. Everyone else was strong enough to resist the temptation to complain when she messed up; she should have been equally strong.

Kota had their first trip to tribal council in a long time, and the Onion Alliance had trouble deciding who to send home. They were faced with two temptations. On one hand, Dan was a likely target. He was outside of their alliance, desperately insecure, liable to switch sides after a merge, and an irritating food-hog. However, Susie made the mistake of telling Corinne that she was considering voting her out – making it clear to the Onions that Susie is a bit of a wild card. And as an added wrinkle, the Onions had to consider the possibility that Dan might have found the immunity idol on his lone trip to Exile Island.

When faced with these two temptations, the Onion Alliance acted wisely – they split their vote. The majority voted for Dan, but in case Dan played the idol, the rest of the votes went to Susie. Either outcome was a win. Dan went home, and with him left the threat of the hidden immunity idol – at least until the players find themselves on a merged tribe with Sugar.

Speaking of Sugar, she too was torn between two temptations this week. Sugar and Ace have been a pair since the beginning. Even though she considered him “a snake,” she felt like he was a good person to work with, due to his physical strength. And she did have some reason to trust him. Last episode (for reasons I cannot fathom), she gave him the immunity idol, but we saw she had it back when she was in the Sugar Shack again. He must have kept his word and returned it.

On the other hand, Sugar had Ken telling her that Ace and Matty agreed to vote her out. As far as we viewers know, that’s not true – Matty approached Ace with the idea, but Ace talked him out of it, saying that Sugar having the idol gave them more power. But Ken also told Sugar that Ace told everyone that she gave him the idol last time and would be dumb enough to do it again. That part may very well be true, and gave Sugar something to think about.

Ace pretty much sealed his fate when he asked Sugar to loan him the immunity idol again. He’d been telling her all along that they had a solid three-person alliance with Matty. If that was true, Ace would have no reason to fear being voted out. Sugar joined with Ken and Crystal and blindsided Ace.

So, with Sugar torn between two temptations – staying with her long-time ally Ace and switching sides to vote him out – did she choose well? I think she did. Ace’s request for the idol showed Sugar that perhaps their threesome wasn’t as strong as Ace had claimed – and gave her all the more reason to believe Ken’s assertion that Ace was using her for the idol. Plus, with the merge looming near, Fang didn’t need Ace’s strength to win challenges… not that it helped them before. Sugar made the right choice.

Be sure to click over to my interview with Dan now, where you’ll find a few more comments from Ace as well!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Gabon articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

Betsy Wasser is the Associate Editor of Reality News Online. She can be reached with any feedback at betsywasser@gmail.com.

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