Survivor: Guatemala’s Episode 5: Blake’s Early Show Interview and Other Matters

It’s not often a strong player talks himself out of the game during the team stage, but Blake apparently did just that on Survivor: Guatemala with his constant tales of how great his life, past, and girlfriend were back home. His ouster brought back memories of Peter in Marquesas, who might have stayed if he had kept his mouth shut. Instead, he went on with some strange conversation about “holes in the body,” and found out too late he had a hole in his strategy, becoming the first one booted.

To Blake’s credit, he didn’t do like a lot of players and say, “You know, I knew this was going to happen,” admitting he’d gotten totally blindsided by the vote. He explained that this was 72 hours of their lives shot in 45 minutes, and that the hardest part of the game was the monotony, citing the “12 to 5,” due to the 120 degree temperature and mosquitoes. He also stated while he was shown as forthcoming, Amy discussed things he probably wouldn’t have in private conversation, but of course that wasn’t shown. He also admitted that some of the castaways’ conversations were probably not appropriate for family hour.

Here’s a question I’d like to ask Blake: Did you give your girlfriend any advance warning about what you said about her in the game? Is she still with you after the last episode? Maybe it would be interesting to interview her and get her thoughts, just as it was interesting to hear Jeff Probst talk to Jon’s allegedly dead Grandma during the finale of Pearl Islands.

Asked how he came to get the nickname “Golden Boy,” Blake said his original plan was to stay “under the radar,” but after getting felled by the tree early on, he stepped up to the plate in every athletic challenge.

Then came the “Secret Scene,” which was not shown Thursday night. Brian was shown saying the following about Blake:

He's got this perfect smile, and model hair and body, and everything he touches turns to gold, which isn't true anyway. So Amy calls him Golden Boy because she has a crush on Blake. That's about it. It makes me vomit because Blake is one of the most egotistical people you've ever met. When Blake opens his mouth you can be 99 percent sure it's going to be about Blake. ... If you can feed Blake's ego, he likes it. And if he knows you're an ego-stroker, he will like you better. ... That's fine with me. I don't care. ... It's ridiculous. It's dumb as hell."

He asserted that while he was talking about himself now, you don’t always get portrayed in the game as you always are, and that he wanted to come away with more than a million dollars—with his honor and integrity, and he did that. I wonder if his girlfriend would agree.

Blake went on to say everyone on the cast thought Brian was gay and made it a big issue and a big hot topic, and Brian was adamant about defending himself on that. Blake claimed he never once spoke badly about Brian, and that Brian is not gay, and he (Blake) tries to be a good guy for everybody.

Eventually, former fan-favorite Rupert Boneham was brought out to discuss the game, and he pointed out that the social aspect is the part of the game that’s easy to underestimate.

He went on to tell Blake, “You don’t really understand when you start talking about yourself and how other people around you see you, and you have those people, you had Brian, I had little Jonny rotten who just kind of feeds you and pushes you into talking about yourself, telling different things. I was yelling at the TV last night saying, ‘You got to stop it. You got to back it down.’”

Asked about second-timer Stephenie’s chances to win this game, Rupert stated she has a chance to make the merge, but if she doesn’t change her attitude, she won’t make it in that merge. He also stated that Gary’s lie (regarding his NFL days) will cost him in the end.

Is Rupert right about Gary? To be honest, I’m not sure. Mostly likely, he will be ousted for reasons that have nothing to do with his pigskin-hurling days. Whether or not the others think he’s a former pro athlete, they obviously know that from a leadership and physical standpoint, he’s a force to be reckoned with, and I predict that may lead to his downfall more than anything else.

Now back to Blake for a second. Did Danni and Bobby Jon make the right decision? Yes, he was obviously grating on their sanity, but it would’ve been to their benefit to keep him around until they no longer needed him. As it is, they just threw away their numbers advantage.