Survivor: The Amazon - Questions About the Final Six

As I've mentioned before, I avoid spoiler sites because they ruin Survivor for me. However, sometimes it's impossible to stay clear of it all. For example, before the show Thursday night, a friend told me someone he knew who was closely associated with the show told either him, or his Mom's mechanic's fifth cousin's dog, that it had been confirmed that Heidi would be clearing out her gym locker at the end of the show.

Another RNO writer told me his readers were certain Rob would be headed back to the mainland. At that point, I figured I had nothing to lose, and went to a major spoiler site that claimed Alex would be saying ta-ta. Of course, this was about the third time they'd predicted him to leave. Well, obviously, they finally got it right. But that brings me to my first question: Do people with spoiler info realize how they look when their information goes more sour than the milk in my fridge? It's not the same as when you predict at the beginning who'll be around at the end. When I make my picks for the roundtable, I have no idea who will stick around and who won't (and if you look back at my track record, you'll see what I mean).

Okay, now that that's out of the way, here's a question or two regarding Alex. Did he realize just how arrogant he came off when he and his contingent were laying around doing nothing? Probably so, but he didn't care, because he thought he had the game wrapped up. Matthew expressed his disgust with the core four's audacity, and well, Matthew's around to sharpen his machete another day.

Also, it's obvious that Alex was a natural for the show. After all, he's a triathlon coach, and he endured for 30 days. But was he really ready for the game aspect of Survivor? Judging by his Early Show appearance, apparently not. He told Julie Chen that he just couldn't lie to anyone, and with his triathlon friends they share training tips and strategies, and he did the same in Survivor. However, while you do compete against others in a triathlon, ultimately, you compete against yourself. This isn't the case with Survivor. You don't keep running, swimming, or biking harder in order to knock someone out.

While you can say Alex's honesty is laudable, it doesn't make for good Survivor strategy. He told Chen that that's how he was away from the game and he wasn't about to change his personality for it. But perhaps adapting is part of the key to "outwit, outplay, outlast." He claimed to hold no grudges against Rob, although that's not the way he would've played the game. Well Alex, that's why he's still out there and you're on the Early Show.

Does anyone to deserve to win more than Rob right now? That is to say, is anyone playing the game any better? Heidi and Jenna seem to think they're back in the high school cafeteria, Matthew is only now beginning to understand where he stands, and Christy and Butch, while nice, are way too passive. Personally, I think it's a credit to Rob's game-playing abilities that he came across in such a way that Alex felt he could trust him.

Did Rob make the right decision? Yes, he may be relegated to runner-up in the final tribal council due to the other three in his former alliance voting against him, but second is still better than fourth. I think he knew what he was doing, and decided to risk it. Now, was it a smart move for him to come clean with Matthew the way he did? I'm tempted to say yes. Unlike Alex, he was in more of a position to spill his guts. Now, I realize he wasn't going to Matthew out of some terrible sense of guilt. Rather, he was doing it because it was in his best interests, game-wise, whereas Alex's honesty with Rob was not. Now granted, Butch, Christy, and Matt may turn on Rob in the final four, but they're a lot less tight-knit that Jenna, Heidi, Rob, and Alex were, so Rob has time to work an angle.

Here's a question regarding Matt, and it's the same one people were asking about JoAnna before her ouster: How much of the show had he actually watched prior to his South American excursion? He said Rob knew Survivor, but not survival, whereas he knew survival, but not Survivor. Gretchen Cordy said, "I thought I had survival skills. That counted for nothing." As we've seen from the past, personal skills are more important than survival skills when it comes to advancing in the game. Gretchen can be forgiven, and maybe even B.B. can, because when they played the game, the principles of lasting in the game weren't firmly set. However, this group of players has no such excuse. Did Matthew realize what he was getting himself into? Probably not, as far as the game was concerned. However, he's made himself useful, has started to understand what's going on, and might be around awhile.

And here's another question:. Is he crazy, or crazy like a fox? In previous episodes, he looked downright psychotic sharpening his machete, and on the Early Show, Alex said it was kind of scary. But during the challenge, when the question was about who needed therapy the most, he answered himself, and he was right. He explained to Jeff Probst, "I know everyone thinks I'm crazy. We joke about it all the time." I'm not sure he always realized that, but he apparently does now. I wish we could've seen footage of this "joking." Also, he handled it well by saying in front of everybody, "I'm a lunatic, what can I say?" Instead of getting defensive, he just rolled with it and didn't let it get under his skin, as far as we know.