Thoughts on Survivor: Tocantins

The Poison Apple Needs to Go

Nowadays it seems that I watch Survivor on CBS more out of habit than anything. I really haven’t seen anything new on it since Rupert Boneham took the world by storm on Survivor: Pearl Islands. This time around in Survivor: Tocantins they are in the Brazilian highlands and it looks like about the same variety of people have been cast and already they are turning on each other. Nice.


I always tend to root for the underdog, and so I was rooting for Sandy and Sierra who were “voted out” of the trek to the camp on the first episode. Sandy has turned out to be annoying enough that I’ve gotten over my sympathy for her, but I’d still like to see Sierra go a little farther, or at least get a fair chance to fit in. So I was pleased tonight when the annoying Coach used his ego-based coaching skills to get the rest of the tribe to vote out Candace, whom he billed as the “Poison Apple.”

Shows like Survivor always try to mislead you in what is going to happen by their editing but it’s rare that it doesn’t play out the way you think it will. Tonight was a nice surprise, then, to see Candace as the second Survivor voted out.

As Candace was walking out of Tribal Council, host Jeff Probst turned to the rest of the tribe and said, “Your first Tribal Council, your first blindside. Congratulations.” I had to chuckle because in my imagination he continued by saying, “Congratulations… you are all now officially scumbags.”

I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting updates about Survivor, as it’s usually the same-old, same-old. But who knows? Maybe this will turn out to be the season that justifies my apathetic loyalty.