Survivor: Cook Islands – What’s More Repulsive?

A season or so ago, I complained about a scene where one creature devoured another. I found it rather gross and disturbing, and wondered why the producers would choose to show that. As it turned out, I got spit up and chewed out by a number of readers, who basically told me that watching a creature eat another wasn’t nearly as disgusting as watching the way the players treat each other on the show.

A couple of episodes ago, we saw footage of an eel regurgitating its last meal, and the recapper wondered why the producers think we’d want to see it. I would have asked the same question, except I knew what would be waiting in my e-mail bag if I dared.

With that in mind, let’s look back at some of the, shall we say, grosser things from the last couple of episodes, and play “What’s More Repulsive?” If you want to write in with your own answers, or come up with your own examples, feel free.

What’s more repulsive, watching the eel spew out its last entrée, or hearing Parvati mention how she wanted to throw up in Jonathan’s face?

What’s more repulsive for Parvati: Looking down at her thumb, trying to gut a fish, or the fact that Jonathan flipped on her? She claimed Jonathan was vile to her and made her sick to her stomach, but how many viewers felt the same way about her antics?

What’s more repulsive: Watching the close-up of Parvati’s’s sliced thumb, or listening to her slice and dice Jonathan? By the way, did anyone notice how Parvati seemed to sustain her injury almost immediately after slamming Jonathan?

What came to mind was a famous John Lennon lyric: “Instant Karma’s gonna get you, gonna hit you right in the face.” Maybe the Reality TV Gods were telling her to lay off Jonathan. Maybe there were just hinting that she was better off being lazy. In any event, the incident looked awfully painful.

Adam apparently couldn’t watch while medics attended to Parvati’s thumb and hid his eyes, but what’s more repulsive, the thumb, or Adam’s assertion that Jonathan had no integrity? Or did both of these things pale in comparison to Adam’s insistence there were six good people in the game who still deserved to be there, obviously excluding Jonathan?

Perhaps most repulsive of all was Adam’s hypocrisy. Just ask the people he voted out, despite supposedly having an alliance with them, in favor of keeping Jonathan. Too bad they don’t have instant replay on the island, because it would’ve been great to see clips of Adam voting out members of his alliance, followed by Jeff Probst asking, “What were you saying about integrity?”

Besides, show me somebody who brings up integrity in Survivor, and I’ll show you someone who’s either naïve as all get-out, or up to his eyeballs in dirty tricks of his own. Or perhaps Adam found some way to rationalize his behavior in his own mind.

I remember being in an online game of Survivor with someone who was furious at me for having voted for her. When I pointed out that she’d done the same to me, she said, “I voted for you every chance I got but you had no reason to vote for me!.”

Mind you, at this point, she was still in the game and I had just been voted out. She also found a way to rationalize calling me an ass and telling me to go to hell and then turning around and insisting she was a nice person. Maybe Adam is guilty of similar rationalizations regarding his own behavior.

Back to Parvati for a second. For the women viewers, what was more repulsive: Seeing Parvati’s sliced thumb, or seeing her discuss the flaunting of her sexuality to stay in the game in previous episodes?

What was more amusing, hearing the medic tell Parvati she wouldn’t need to trim her thumbnail for awhile, or hearing Adam say there was something about fingernails falling off that really bothered him?

For that matter, was Adam as repulsed by the fingernail falling off as viewers may have been by his conduct? Or, was his conduct not repulsive at all, but rather, quite amusing? Most likely, a little of both.

What was funnier, hearing Adam talk about integrity, or hearing Parvati’s comment last week that she was twice as mature as Jonathan?

What was more repulsive for Becky and Sundra: Seeing Parvati’s thumb, or being able to smell the pepperoni on Jonathan’s breath after he belched in the previous episode?

For that matter, were the eel, the thumb, Parvati’s conduct, and Adam’s conduct any more repulsive that Jonathan’s entire display at last week’s food auction? Just how repulsed and nauseated were the others by the way he insisted on listing everything he’d eaten?

If Jonathan hadn’t eaten anything at the auction, or had been a bit more humble in his conduct, might he still be in the game?

In fact, did anyone notice the silence that greeted Jonathan when he got back from Exile Island? It seems as though whenever someone returns from solitary confinement, that person is greeted with hugs, and sometimes more. But when Jonathan came back, you could’ve heard the crickets chirping.

This scenario seemed to repeat itself when Jonathan asked Becky how her sister was, and she seemingly walked away. The recapper attributed this to editing, and while it may well have been, I don’t think it’s editing that once Jonathan made his presence known, things quieted down in a hurry.

I’ll tell you what repulses me: Anytime someone uses the word “deserving” when talking about Survivor. Adam insisted that Jonathan didn’t deserve to be there, but at this point in the game, deserving has nothing to do with it. Strategy should have everything to do with it, but I’m not sure that’s a concept that means anything to Adam.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully, you weren’t too repulsed by all this. With that in mind, which of the following do you find the most repulsive: The eel, Parvati’s thumb, or that possibility of a win by either Parvati or Adam?

Okay, enough with the gross stuff. Let’s end up by looking at the flip side of nauseating: Has anyone ever cleaned up half as nicely as Candice did at the first Tribal Council since her ouster? Say what you will about the way she acted at times (and I did), but seeing the way she looked made me wish it’d been ME getting that long kiss at the end of Tribal Council, and not Adam. After all, I, uh, uh, deserve it.

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

Ken can be reached with any comments, criticisms, or money orders at YourNextOfKen@aol.com.

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