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

Welcome back to another week at Reality High! As usual, I’ve got contestants and teams who are great when it comes to strategy, and some who just don’t seem to learn.

In any case, the remaining seventeen contestants from Survivor: Cook Islands and the remaining eight teams from The Amazing Race 10 returned, and I gave them the tests for this week. They took the tests, and returned them to me. Once I got the tests back, I took a look at them.

When I took a look at Candice’s reply to the first question, I had to smile a little:

1. True or False: If you think people on your former tribe sent you to Exile Island to protect you, it’s best to play dumb if people from your new tribe ask you about why you were sent there to begin with.

Candice answered “True,” and I was pleased to tell her that she was right. Once she returned to Aitu, Flica asked her why she was sent to Exile Island. She also asked if perhaps Adam and Parvati urged the others on Raro to send her there to protect her from Tribal Council. Candice privately believed they did just that; but she knew that if the others realized that, they’d probably think she’ll rejoin her allies at the merge and get rid of Candice before then so that Raro wouldn’t gain a numbers advantage. If I’d been in her shoes, I’d have done the same thing. The problem is, her dumb act wasn’t likely to fool anybody, but at least she tried.

But when I took a look at the answers from some of those on Raro, I had to wonder if I’d have to call the witch doctor for the third week in a row:

2. You were all recently switched up into a new tribe. What is the best way to do things till you hit the merge?

A. Work hard and form new alliances or maintain old ones.
B. Lie around but form new alliances or maintain old ones.
C. Lie around and order people around. After all, the girls would never get rid of a strong, young guy, would they?

Cristina, Jenny, Parvati, Rebecca, and Stephannie all answered “A,” and I was happy to tell them that they were right. They were all working very hard on the shelter, and we saw Parvati form an alliance with Nate. She probably also has an alliance with Adam, and she may be getting along with Brad despite the fact that Brad’s gay and gays won’t respond to a heterosexual woman’s flirtatiousness. Meanwhile, Jenny also seems to have an alliance with Brad from Puka.

Adam, Brad and Nate all answered “B,” and I told them that wasn’t the best answer, but it wasn’t the worst one either. Adam obviously still has an alliance with Parvati, since they voted to get rid of J.P.; Brad has an alliance with Jenny from Puka, and Nate has formed an alliance with Parvati since moving to Raro. They should be out working more, but at least they are forming or maintaining alliances.

But J.P. answered “C,” and I had to count to 10 before telling him that he was absolutely wrong! It’s bad enough to lie around and not do much of anything, but to actually act like you’re the king of the tribe and others have to bow down to you, well that’s even worse! When I told J.P. this, he continued to say that there was no way that the girls would even think of getting rid of any of the strong, young men before the merge, since they’d need strength for the challenges. I reminded him that the Sook Jai tribe from Survivor: Thailand dumped the strong, young Jed in the third episode because he was lazy. Of course, they also threw the challenge to get rid of him, which was wrong, but the point still remains: youth and strength just aren’t enough.

Meanwhile, I had to smile when I saw Ozzy’s answer to the third question:

3. Your only ally from your former tribe was voted out at the last Tribal Council. What do you do to make certain that you stick around?

A. Work hard and provide food for the tribe, pronto!
B. Gain as many allies as you possibly can.
C. Lie around and basically give up.
D. Both A and B are correct.

Ozzy chose “A,” and while the best answer is “D,” he got part of the strategy right. Ozzy knew that a great way to stick around is to provide fish for the tribe so that they would be less likely to vote him out. He obviously learned something from Rupert from Survivor: Panama and Tom from Survivor: Palau, both of whom were the big providers for their tribe, ensuring that their tribes would keep both guys around till the merge and beyond. Of course, Rupert wound up on the jury, so providing food for the tribe isn’t enough either, but it’s a start. However, what he needs now are allies, particularly a good “goat” to take to the Final 2, one that’ll make him look like an angel.

Unfortunately, I had to take a look at Stephannie’s answer to the fourth question, and I just groaned:

4. True or False: If you are the weakest link in challenges, by all means announce it to your tribemates after the loss of immunity.

Stephannie answered “True,” and I had to tell her that she was wrong. You just don’t announce that you are the weakest link in the challenges! That puts the target right on your back! It sure encouraged Nate to vote for Stephannie; and if the other women hadn’t realized that allowing Stephannie to go home would make them vulnerable to being picked off by the guys, it would’ve sent Stephannie home, not J.P. Stephannie admitted that she was wrong in making the statement and that she just said out of sheer frustration. I’m glad she admitted she was wrong to do so, but I still had to tell her to reserve such admissions of weakness for confessionals from now on.

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!