Author: Parvati Shallow

October 29, 2015 12:21pm PT by Parvati Shallow

The cast of ‘Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance’  AP Images

Season 31 of the CBS reality show features returning castmembers who were chosen by viewers.

Parvati Shallow is a ‘Survivor’ champ and three-time competitor on the show. Find her on Twitter @parvatishallow.

The intensity of last night’s episode of Survivor: Second Chance still has me a bit jumpy. All of the surprising twists of fate, coupled with it nearly being Halloween weekend, made this one helluva ride — and one emotional hour of good television. 

Let’s start right off the top with the ugly cry. When Jeff Probst shows up at your camp in the middle of the night, and none of your tribemates have been begging to leave the game, and no one is injured, you know something is terribly wrong. In the pitch black of night, Probst walks right over to where Dietz is sleeping and wakes him up. Terry’s son Danny is in the hospital, and everyone thinks it’s serious enough for Dietz to fly home right now. Dietz, in obvious shock and fear, agrees immediately. He doesn’t blink an eye before telling his tribe mates that he’s leaving the game tonight to go care for his son. My stomach drops thinking about what it must have been like for Terry to receive this type of news so far away from home. It takes about 24 hours of straight travel to get back to the East Coast from the castaways’ island. 

Making the trip back from Koh Rong to Boston must have been the longest of Terry’s life. 

Thankfully, Terry’s son Danny, a junior in high school, is now recovering from a successful heart transplant, and we can all hope to see Dietz back on another season of Survivor. I’m sure many share the sentiment that his second chance on Survivor came to an end too soon. 

When Terry leaves the game, his entire tribe (who we saw in last week’s episode plotting Terry’s demise) all rally behind him and start to promise they will “bring it home for Terry.” I think this scene shows how different this group of people is from previous seasons’ castaways. They appear to have formed very real connections, and it looks like they have banded together as a family. It’s interesting to watch a team that continues to win challenges actually get closer to one another. In most seasons, when a tribe continues to win, all that downtime starts to intensify the paranoia, and the tribe ultimately self-destructs. That’s not the case with this Ta Keo tribe. Maybe it’s Joe’s calming influence and leadership. 

Blame it on the man bun. 

When all of the tribes arrive at the reward challenge, they are informed of yet another tribe swap. “Drop your buffs,” is fast becoming the theme of the season. 

Now, we’re back to two tribes, and I’m very happy about this. With two tribes, it’s much easier to see alliances and read tribe dynamics. I also have a theory that all of these tribe swaps are being implemented to throw off pre-game alliances. Whatever the reason, thank you, producers for bringing us back to two. 

Now, back to Joe. 

Our immunity challenge is full of hot, oiled-up bods. And then there’s Stephen. Once again, the Fish tries his luck at hand-eye coordination, and once again, he comes up short. As Fishbach runs back to join his tribe with his head hanging low, his teammate Jeremy tells him that he must have confidence in himself. “We have confidence in you. You have to have it in yourself,” Jeremy says. 

Stephen is having a rough second chance. Because he’s caught up in his head, thinking he’s not as good as the alpha males, he’s blowing all of these challenges. He’s getting tangled up in his crazy thinking, and he’s sabotaging himself. If Stephen can ditch the baggage he’s carrying from losing to alpha-male JT in Tocantins, Stephen will survive. If he cannot, he will perish. 

From the looks of this episode, Stephen wants to get rid of Joe because he doesn’t want to watch history repeat itself. He knows that Joe is a major threat to win the game, and if Stephen and Joe are in the end together, it will be another epic fail for Fishy. Stephen sees this, and he wants to ambush Joe. The problem with Fishy’s plan is that Jeremy wants to keep Joe around as a shield. This all makes sense to me, and I think Stephen can’t see past his own traumatic Survivor loss to understand the way Jeremy is playing. It makes you want to shake Stephen up and say, “Get it together, Fishbach. We’re all pulling for you!” Doesn’t it?

Fishbach does redeem his poor challenge performance in the gross eating challenge. He sucks down that water beetle like it’s a tasty halloween treat. Woo hoo! I love watching people achieve personal victories like this! Stephen must have felt like a total rock star. 

Kass, on the other hand, does not perform very well in this food challenge. She ends up choking up her balut and losing to Tasha in the last moment. I’m with you on this one, Kass. When I just spellchecked that word, Google brought up images of a half-baked baby bird inside it’s egg. I nearly puked just looking at it. 

Sick. 

Losing the challenge means that Ta Keo’s happy family must lose a member. Who will it be? 

Savage feels quite comfortable taking the lead in this new tribe. He decides to chuck Spencer under the bus, and he tells the group that they will all use Ciera as the red herring. Not the most brilliant idea to throw Ciera’s name out there, Savage. Understandably, Ciera is not happy with this arrangement. She pulls Kass aside and pitches a power move — blindside Woo. 

Kass now holds Spencer’s fate in her cold, witchy hands. Will she play a vengeful game and vote out her former enemy? Or will she play it cool, take out an athletic threat and earn Spencer’s favor? 

This is exciting! I really love how Kass is maneuvering her way through this game. She’s observant and low-key, just waiting for the right moment to make her move. This is how you play the game. It’s not easy to lay in wait, especially when you are a strong personality and a strategic thinker. I’m seriously impressed with Kass’ skillful playing. 

Kass’ perfect timing pays off in a blindside. Woo is voted out, leaving Savage out in the cold. How will he recover from this blow? Can Savage get back into the majority, or is he next to go? 

For more in-depth prob-sting of Survivor: Second Chance, check out my latest strategy analysis and recap here. 

Survivor

Parvati Shallow

THRnews@thr.com

October 22, 2015 12:51pm PT by Parvati Shallow

The cast of ‘Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance’  AP Images

Season 31 of the CBS reality show features returning castmembers who were chosen by viewers.

Parvati Shallow is a ‘Survivor’ champ and three-time competitor on the show. Find her on Twitter @parvatishallow.

They say that life is defined by moments in time. As seen on Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance, these moments can be times of great heroism, like Joe’s everyday life, or they can be times of complete and epic failure, like Fishbach‘s immunity challenge performance. Usually, we know which moments matter — graduating from college, the birth of a child or our first heartbreak. And sometimes, when we are driven by fear, we are not even aware that these defining moments of our lives are even happening — like Abi pushing away her closest ally. Well, this episode of Survivor had some standout moments that I feel compelled to dig into.  

1. Abi jumps to the conclusion that Woo is using the story of his mother’s heart transplant to gain sympathy from Tasha and Savage. The moment when Abi pulls Tasha into the jungle for some girl talk may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Tasha is getting fed up with Abi’s constant need for attention and reassurance, and she’s losing trust and faith in the Brazilian firecracker day by day. My take is that Abi is not aware that the way she is relating to people causes damage to their relationship. Woo is so open-hearted and grateful to be there that the contrast is stark. If Abi can stop the paranoia and relax for a few more days, she may just make it to the merge and go all the way. But for now, she’s skating on thin ice. 

2. Spencer becomes the hero of his own story. I like watching Spencer grow into himself this season. He got knocked around a lot on his first season and played with insane gamers like Tony, so Spencer didn’t have a chance to get into the beauty of living off the land and developing authentic bonds. This game is a very different story for Spencer. He’s pushing himself to grow, and he’s changing the behaviors that once made him a target. He’s talking strategy less, he’s emoting more and having real conversations. It looks to me like Spencer may just be Jeremy’s right-hand man on Bayon. And after Monica’s blindside, Spencer’s in an even more secure spot.

3. Clamgate. Sometimes, not being in the moment can be your undoing. Monica is thinking too far ahead, and her concern for conserving nature’s bounty rubs Kimmi the wrong way. Her perception of her relationship with Kimmi is also way off. It looks like Monica really feels that she can trust Kimmi and Kelly, but, when she runs back to tell the boys about Monica’s girl alliance treachery, we can see that Kimmi’s true loyalty lies with Jeremy and Stephen. If Monica could have been more present to reality, she may have been able to read Kimmi better and save herself. 

Now that we have broken down the top three moments of this episode, we can look forward to more dramatic moments next week. It looks like something big is going down in Cambodia, and I know you will be there with me to see it all play out. 

For more moment by moment Survivor talk and a chance to win cool Survivor stuff, check out my video analysis right here.

See you next week!

Survivor

Parvati Shallow

THRnews@thr.com

October 08, 2015 7:59pm PT by Parvati Shallow

The cast of ‘Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance’  AP Images

Season 31 of the CBS reality show features returning castmembers who were chosen by viewers.

Parvati Shallow is a ‘Survivor’ champ and three-time competitor on the show. Find her on Twitter @parvatishallow.

Our latest episode of Survivor Cambodia featured a couple of deep human themes: resilience and acceptance. As fans of Survivor know, it takes a strong ability to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances as the game evolves. Players who are able to quickly accept these changes and adjust their gameplay are rewarded. Those who cannot bounce back typically get snuffed.

With this new tribe swap, we now have three tribes of six. And as with any Survivor shakeup, there are winners and there are losers. Let’s get into it.

Read more ‘Survivor: Second Chance’: Parvati Shallow Picks the Top 3 Contenders

Andrew Savage was burned in a twist on his last season of Survivor: Pearl Islands. He admits to being completely overwhelmed and unhappy about this new tribe. OK, Andrew, it’s fine to be upset for a few moments, but don’t tell everyone about it! You don’t want to give your new tribemates any reason to single you out as a bad seed right now. Because Andrew is on the losing side of the numbers, he needs to man up and be cool about this swap, even though he’s having Survivor PTSD flashbacks. Stay calm, and you will be rewarded.

The other person who gets the short end of the stick with this swap: Tasha Fox. Unlike Andrew, Tasha instantly accepts her new place in Angkor. She wastes no time or energy resisting her new position. Because she has her mind fixed on the end goal of winning the game, she hits the ground running and makes moves to secure an alliance with Abi right away. Tasha blows my mind in this episode! With her gigantic smile, quick wit, resilience and total composure, she is able to keep herself in the game despite being massively outnumbered by the original Ta Keo.

I have a new favorite, and her name is Tasha Fox.

Another guy who is quickly moving up the ranks in the Survivor power books is firefighter Jeremy Collins. Collins remained at Bayon in the switch-up. With his new tribe, he keeps a significant amount of people from his original Bayon and thus maintains his dominant position. Not only does Collins score with numbers, he also snoops around hard enough to find an idol clue hidden at camp. The clue leads to a hidden immunity idol at the challenge, which Collins handles like a champ. As he snatches the idol mid-challenge, his tribe is none the wiser. They even manage to take home the second immunity idol, saving them from a date with Probst at Tribal Council. Well played, my friends. Well played.

Now, for the person who really blew it: Jeff Varner. When Jeff mouths something to Kelly Wigglesworth on the other tribe, he gets intercepted and outed by Tasha. Then, when Tasha explains to Probst what all the fuss is about, Varner really loses it. He instantly starts blowing everyone’s cover and airing the tribe’s dirty laundry. Not cool, Varner. I really thought he was better than that. I’m disappointed, but I also understand that Survivor takes a lot of physical and mental stamina. If you don’t have the energy to control your emotional outbursts, you’re going to say some things you wish you hadn’t. And your big, reactive mouth is going to get you in trouble. Will Varner be able to get himself out of this mess?

I like Varner a lot, so I hope he can fix this.

I didn’t expect his strategy to save himself would involve a long afternoon nap in the shelter while the rest of his tribe scrambles. This looks really bad for Varner.

Tasha wants to win this game, and she’s out for Varner now. She approaches Abi and almost immediately secures her loyalty and her vote. But when Abi takes this offer to Peih Gee and Woo, they don’t bite. It’s no secret that Abi and Peih Gee don’t see eye to eye, and when Abi backs Peih Gee into a corner, saying she will not vote for Tasha or Savage, Peih Gee is p.o.’d. Abi’s power move sends Peih Gee into a tailspin in which Varner is the greatest beneficiary. Peih Gee feels bullied by Abi and wants her gone, but Tasha and Savage want to keep her, so it’s curtains for Peih Gee.

And, just like that, the Peih Gee versus Abi grudge match is finished.

I can’t say I won’t miss those two little firecrackers going at it, but I’m glad we’ve still got one wild woman still left in the game.

For a more in-depth analysis of this season of Survivor, check out this video I made just for fans like you!

Survivor

Parvati Shallow

THRnews@thr.com