Reality High Test Results, October 5 – 11: Who’s the Bigger Idiot?

Fortunately, however, her mistake was canceled out by the other women’s answer to the fifth question:

5. True or False: It is in your best interests to make certain you have the numbers needed to vote out someone before you get to Tribal Council.

Cristina, Jenny and Rebecca all answered “True,” and I was pleased to tell them that they were right. They realized that there were five women and four men. That means if they get rid of a woman (Stephannie), they lose their gender advantage and are vulnerable to a takeover by the men. This would lead to the women getting voted out one by one. So Cristina and Jenny made attempts to get the fifth person. Cristina first went to Parvati, but Parvati was reluctant (though she wound up voting out J.P. anyway,) and Jenny helped to get Brad to agree to vote out J.P., thus gaining the majority.

J.P., however, answered “False,” and I had to have a long, hard talk with him. True, it’s a good idea to keep strong players for the challenges (just ask Kel from Survivor: the Australian Outback), but Survivor is about alliances, not just about winning challenges. It’s also often a game of numbers (just ask the younger guys from Survivor: Vanuatu and the Pagong tribe from the first Survivor series.) J.P. didn’t realize that he didn’t have the numbers and that he needed a fifth person from among the women. And he paid for it.

What went wrong with J.P.? He had a couple of problems. His biggest one was that he got too comfortable, which led to him being lazy and also made him vulnerable to the women pulling a counter-alliance to vote him out instead. It didn’t help his cause any that he didn’t take a long run before swimming like Ozzy did, and that Ozzy was a better swimmer in any case. If he had run farther before swimming, he might’ve helped his team out more, although Jenny, Rebecca, and Stephannie probably wouldn’t have gotten the fire going before Cao Boi did anyway.

Once I was done with the Survivor contestants, I turned to the answers of the Amazing Race teams. I first looked at the answers to the sixth question:

6. You have just heard an announcement at a statue in a garden detailing where you are supposed to go. What should be your next move?

A. Write it down carefully, then get a cab driver to hear the directions before going on.
B. Write it down carefully, then get to a cab, and then give directions and go!
C. Just go there without writing it down.

Dustin & Kandice and Lyn & Karlyn answered “B,” while the others answered “A.” Although I can understand why the other two decided to just scramble without getting their cab driver to hear the directions, the best answer is “A.” The cab drivers know the Vietnamese language, after all, and they’ll get you there more quickly than if you do it the other way. Lyn & Karlyn found that out the hard way, but hours of operation were on their side again.

Meanwhile, I had to smile when I saw Erwin & Godwin and Tom & Terry’s answers to the seventh question:

7. True or False: It’s a good idea for one team to follow another to the next route marker as long as the other team knows where they’re going.

Erwin & Godwin and Tom & Terry both answered “True,” and I was pleased to tell them that they were all correct. As long as one team knows where it’s going (or in this case, the cab driver for the team knows where he’s going,) it’s a great idea for any other teams to follow the first team. And even if the first team isn’t keen on it, it’s still a good idea. Fortunately, Tom & Terry were okay with Erwin & Godwin following them. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t matter in the end.

Worse yet, I just had to groan when I saw Rob’s answer to the eighth question:

8. You are having the worst taxi cab experience in the world. What is the best way for you to handle the situation?

A. Take deep breaths, and then calmly urge your driver to return to your last location so you can pay him before grabbing a different cab driver.
B. Let your partner calmly urge that your cab driver to return to your last location so you can pay him before you ditch him in favor of someone else.
C. Rant and rave before you return to your last location and ditch your cab driver.

Rob answered “C,” and I counted to 10 before telling him that he was absolutely wrong! You should remain calm in that type of situation. If you can’t remain calm, at least you should let your partner do so, providing your partner’s calmer than you. The last thing you should do is to rant and rave. Colin had problems when he did that in The Amazing Race 5, and when Jonathan the Ass yelled at his cab driver in TAR 6, viewers cheered everywhere when his cab driver booted him and his wife, Victoria!