Survivor Season 16 ~ Episode 13 – May 8, 2008

By: Mary Cavaliere

Thirty-four days in, and this game gets more interesting by the minute. Honestly, I thought without Jonathon and Ozzy it would be boring, but that has certainly not been the case! I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this hard during an episode either. First, watching Erik express his anger towards Amanda for making him feel like a fool at the last tribal council was priceless. He feels like a fool because he IS a fool! He has a lot to learn about women and hopefully this game has taught him something he can take back to the real world. Women can be very manipulative and devious if they need to be. They also “talk” a lot more than men so promising Natalie he’d send her to Exile Island and then breaking that promise, and then trying to work over Cirie to vote out Amanda showed his blatant stupidity.

The first challenge was a test to see how much contestants knew about past seasons of Survivor. The first person to score four correct answers would win reward. The reward was flying in a helicopter over the gorgeous Rock Island to a luxury resort to enjoy a massage and a meal. Erik showed how much of a fan he really was by winning. Natalie expected him to take her with him to the reward but instead he chose Amanda. I wondered what was at the base of that decision. He said it was to get to know Amanda more and to redeem himself, but I think it had more to do with the fact that she’s Ozzy’s girl and he just can’t get enough of buttering up to Ozzy, even after the guy is gone! It was bad enough he didn’t take Natalie with him on the reward, but to further anger her by sending Parvati to Exile Island instead of Natalie was just one more stupid move on his part. She was so ticked off she wouldn’t even speak to him when he returned from the challenge. Fuel was added to the fire when Natalie was walking by a hut where Cirie and Erik were talking and overheard him plotting against voting Natalie or Amanda off. Wow. Blind AND stupid!

Well as girls do, they all got together and compared notes and Erik knew he was doomed. So the girls take it one step further and figure they might be able to convince Erik that he needed to redeem himself. If he wins immunity, why not give the necklace to Natalie and vote with Cirie and Natalie to oust Amanda? As stupid men do, he took the bate.

The immunity challenge was to solve three puzzles. Using a set of coordinates the tribe members had to dig to find puzzle pieces. Solving the first puzzle led to the coordinates of the second buried bag of puzzle pieces. Solving the second puzzle led to the third coordinates to find the last buried bag of puzzle pieces. Solve the third puzzle and you’re in the Final Four. It was no big surprise that Erik won.

Tribal council arrives and there he is with his immunity necklace and as soon as he starts talking about redeeming himself the jury starts giggling and the girls remaining on the tribe are snickering. They all realize he fell for their trick hook, line, and sinker! The jury was laughing so hard and so was I. He has now been named the DUMBEST survivor contestant in the history of the show. And that title has been rightfully earned!!!!

Sunday night is the 2-hour finale where we learn who wins the cash followed by the infamous Survivor reunion show. It ought to be a pretty interesting three hours!

You can read more of Mary’s television blogs at www.myspace.com/italiangirl57

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