Tossing Penny's Wish into the Fountain of Losers, or Should Penny Have Been Voted Out?

Like Ken the week before, Penny is almost completely responsible for her own downfall. The alliance of five – Jake, Erin, Shii Ann, Ken, and Penny – did not know how to play the game effectively. They threw challenges, voted out the strongest players, and ended up going into a merge with low numbers. All this could have been avoided had they been playing as a team instead of playing as individuals. It turns out it was not in anyone's best interest to get rid of Robb, Stephanie, and Jed so early.

Beyond that, Penny made some other mistakes as well. She stuck with Ken and Jake when voting off Erin, her biggest ally. She should have gone for the tie vote. It would seem obvious to anyone familiar with the show that Ken would be the first individual boot from CG. Why back a losing horse? Had she and Erin stuck together to vote out Ken, perhaps Jake could have been swayed, but if not, if Erin won the tie, then she could have a stronger case to persuade the Chuay Gahn women to join them.

Penny also should not have separated herself from Jake. As we have seen in past Survivors, people don't trust alliance jumpers. By putting out Jake's torch in the immunity alliance, Penny told the rest of the tribe she was done with him, her loyalty was for sale when it should have been priceless. Everyone but Clay saw through her game and got rid of her.

Helen, although on the surface she seems strong, may not be the smart player she appears to be. According to Penny in her chat, when Jake presented Helen with the opportunity to band together and get rid of Clay or Brian, Helen immediately ran back to tell the men what he said. Bad move. Helen and Penny both had opportunities to made themselves stronger and they both made mistakes.

Penny did deserve to be voted off. Although we still have no direct visual evidence that she was manipulative, at least any more than Brian or Clay or Jake, Penny gave enough people the idea that she was and they saw her as a threat or wanted to punish her for disloyalty.

The whole game could change this week if Jake wins immunity and Jan and Helen see that they are vulnerable. If Jake does not win immunity, he is the most likely to go. If he wins immunity but the girls still do not get it through their thick skulls that he could help them win a million bucks, Jan will probably be targeted.

Here's hoping something, anything happens to save this, in my opinion the worst Survivor season yet.

Peggy Keller is Mother and Behavior Therapist to her two autistic sons and teenage daughter. Click here to e-mail her.

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! And take a look at the rest of the site. You can find all of our recent Survivor articles at the Survivor: Thailand page and take a look at our sections on Big Brother 3 and The Osbournes. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about reality TV, be sure to check out RealityTVFans.com and SirLinksALot!