Being able to cherry pick from one of the best—if not the best—casting pools in reality TV has plenty of notable advantages. There are already plenty of people to root for and against on both sides of the Heroes and Villains divide. Even the ciphers have been providing great moments—like Sugar stalking Colby around the campsite in the middle of the night, because he wouldn’t snuggle with her. I could imagine having a personal stake in whether or not most of these people get voted off—let’s say 17 out of 20 of them, at least—which makes for pretty gripping television, and magnifies the effects of the personal dynamics that the show is built upon.
One of the most fascinating parts of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, so far, is the show’s willingness to redefine its relationship with characters they’ve gotten to know incredibly well. Case in point: Rupert Bonham and James Clement have each played Survivor twice. Each of them were immensely popular on both of their seasons, and each of them walked away with the title of Fan Favorite and subsequent prize money at the end of each one. For Rupert, that meant winning one million dollars without even coming close to winning the actual game. Now, on their third seasons, James and Rupert, both on the Heroes’ tribe, are making total jackasses of themselves, and the producers are just letting them have at it.
Rupert is the more harmless of the two—he’s merely complaining around the camp, and trying to make huge motivational speeches at every opportunity. In other words, he’s coming off like an egomaniacal cheese dick—one that, incidentally, can’t make fire, and can’t fish because of a broken little toe.
James, on the other hand, is turning into a bit of a tyrant. He spend a third of “It’s Getting the Best of Me” berating one of the female members of his tribe. He followed it up this week by mouthing off at another female player for no reason (he’s submissive to the guys.) Then, in a challenge where two players tried to knock each other off a pedestal with giant duffel bags, he got paired up with Randy, the oldest dude in the game. It took about three seconds for James to beat him, and, afterward, he threw his bag at Randy and angrily yelled, “Get your ass out of here.” Dude is losing his shit, and it is as scary and mesmerizing as a car wreck.
Then, there are the characters who just keep on giving—like Coach. Everybody on Coach’s tribe thinks he’s a joke; he thinks he’s running the show. All in all, pretty routine stuff. Except that Coach is dropping non-sequitur Martin Luther King Jr. quotes, wearing giant feather earrings, and saying shit like “There’s nobody out here that’s honorable any more. Except for me.” Basically, he’s doing all the stuff that Rupert is doing, only no one takes him seriously—so it’s hilarious, not annoying. And because he’s the underdog, it’s nearly impossible for me not to root for him.
The first time that Survivor did an All-Stars season, they picked 18 people from a pool of 112 (roughly 16%.) Most of the players, though they’d done well in the game, were either vacuous personalities, or not great players, or both. The season turned into an ego parade that seemed to wear down the producers and host Jeff Probst. This season, they picked from a much larger pool of players—20 of 300—and ended up with a cast of dynamic personalities that can actually play the game. Watching each of them hustle their ass off to win has been absolutely unreal, so far. More importantly, the producers and Probst seem completely prepared for the ego bath, and welcome it. They’re letting characters play themselves out both creepily (James) and hilariously (Coach)—and sometimes, like in the case of Tom on the Heroes’ tribe and Boston Rob on the Villains’, even heroically.
During the duffel bag immunity challenge, Coach violated a technical rule by taking his hands off of the bag to push Rupert around. As soon as he thought he’d won, he started in on 30 seconds of victory poses, screaming, and muscle flexing. Probst yelled at him, “No, no, no.” The heroes yelled at him, “No, no karate chopping.” And when he finally realized he’d have to play the round over, he pouted and flipped Probst off. Probst just laughed.
Lost: "Sundown" – by Zeb L. West
Dear Lost,
Please teach me how to care about this parallel universe. You lost me at hello.
Sincerely,
Zeb L. West
In this week’s Sayid-centric episode we get a glimpse at what the Iraqi torturer’s life might have been if he’d… pawned the love of his life off on his brother? Apparently, this is an option in Iraqi break-ups. Apparently, you can just give a spurned woman to your brother, have her bear his children (who you treat like your own), and come back to visit periodically, to suffer for your love that can never be. Thank God we live in America, where there’s more civilized ways of dealing with heartache, like calling in the Marriage Ref. It’s always tough to sympathize with characters who know what they want, but have somehow denied themselves based on an indecipherable system of morality. If Nadia knows they’re in love, Sayid knows their in love, his gormless brother Omar knows they’re in love, the kids know they’re in love, and it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck… Having Sayid create an elaborate system of self-flagellation is an okay choice, but I can’t sympathize while he’s suffering at his own hand. And I’m left to wonder why no one in this scenario is pursuing their own happiness.
This all wouldn’t be a problem (if I didn’t have to sit through it) if it wasn’t the foundation for the moral choice he has to make when confronted by Martin Keamy. My best guess for the narrative function of this parallel universe plot-line is that it shows us a comparison of the choices the character might make if they’d never encountered the island. In both cases, Sayid is faced with the option of killing everything that stands in his way, and he seems to always… kill everything that stands in his way. In the case of killing Smoke Monster Locke, which Dogen asks him to do with some kind of ceremonial dagger borrowed off the set of The Golden Child (who’s with me?), Sayid fails to stab him before Smokey gets a word out (I hate rules like this) and so he’s tempted into the bargain with the Devil. The Devil is always recognizable because he offers you things you’re not supposed to have, (Like the love of your life, who you pawned off on your brother in a parallel reality) at a price that will cost you your soul. But at this point, how can we believe that adding a few more corpses to Sayid’s body count will really have any effect on his final judgement? Predictably, Sayid chooses to kill all people in all scenarios including two who were pretty useful for delivering esoteric information this season, Dogen and his faithful partner Shaggy (Lennon).
Malcolm Gladwell’s recent collection of New Yorker essays entitled ‘What the Dog Saw,’ contains an interesting essay about Enron. In it, he draws the distinction between a puzzle and a mystery (he attributes this idea to national-security expert Gregory Treverton). With a puzzle, you have the comfort of knowing that there is a solution; if you are able uncover enough information you can put the missing piece into place, and everything makes sense. A mystery is far more unsettling. Mysteries involve having too much information, and the challenge is creating a frame of reference that allows you to draw sensible conclusions. Mysteries don’t always end in a singular tidy answer. What worries me about Lost is that despite all the elements of mystery which have been so fun for the audience to parse through, the writers might have had a puzzle in mind the whole time. And at this point, can there be one single puzzle piece that ties this whole picture together? And if in the final episode, we’re presented with some kind of explanation that suppose ties this all together, can that really be satisfying?
Questions for the commenters: What do you think the parallel universe is? Why are we being shown this alternate reality? The contest continues, and stay tuned to see what prize you will receive for correct predictions!
The Bad Girls Club: "Amber Alert!" - Tucker Stone
Although every episode this season so far has featured that commercial for Plan B, the one where a mirrored infinity of women wake up alone concerned about the previous evening's sexual encounter, this was the first episode where the company purchased enough air time to become announced as official sponsors. Read into that what you will.
Natalie won't be returning, and with Kate as the one exception, everybody is very happy about this, none more so than Amber, who has a bald spot from where Natalie yanked out of a clump of her hair. All of the girls--Kate included--get together and pack up Natalie's things and take them down to the edge of the driveway. Except for a brief confessional where Natalie tells everyone, once again, that she was the only draw the show had, Natalie won't return to the Bad Girls Club until the heavily promoted reunion special.
Also happy to see Natalie go is Annie, who has decided to set her sights on getting rid of Kate next. Kendra is more interested in her developing relationship with Larry (aka "LP"), who she has been spending more time with lately. The two make a date to meet at the house, although Kendra quickly makes it clear to LP that they won't be having sex when he initially gropes her in the hot tub. (Although Kendra has apparently had more sex than the other roommates during her time on the show, she explains that she prefers to make men like LP--guys she likes--wait.) LP takes it in stride, although he dryly points out that Kendra should probably not say things like "We're not having sex tonight" and then immediately say "I'm really fucking horny."
The next evening, the remaining girls in the house go to a bar chosen by Annie, as she has a crush on the bartender. Seeing an opportunity to fuck with someone who doesn't like her, Kate corners the bartender and flirts like its going out of style (although it never will), and Annie is devastated. She cries, she complains to the other girls, and while she never seems to go over and flirt with the bartender herself, the night ends badly for her. Two later confessionals sum up the evening:
Lexie: "Kate has nobody's back in this house. Kate could care less if any girl in this house got jumped by a pack of werewolves. Where is the love?"
Kate: "No guy will ever like Annie."
The next day, the girls are going paintballing. While a couple of them seem excited, it's pretty obvious that this is a trip forced upon them by the producers. In an interesting (and rare) twist, the paintball employees don't show up and hawk their services in hopes of television attention. Kendra & Kate team up against Lexie, Annie & Amber, Kate gets shot in the face a few times, aggravating her natural tendency towards skittishness, and then the girls go home. Whatever hoped-for drama was expected never arrives.
That evening, Kendra has a date set up with LP, a date for sex. She sets up candles, dolls herself up real nice, and LP doesn't show up for hours. Kendra: "What guy shows up late for sex? PLEASE let me know." He doesn't answer her phone calls, he doesn't call her back, but when he does finally arrive, he knocks on the door. Wait, check that.
He knocks the main theme to the Terminator film series on the door.
If he was going to meet up with a geeky 20-something guy, and he wanted to smooth the whole being-really-late thing over, knocking the Terminator theme on the door would probably work, but Kendra doesn't seem that impressed. She does, however, laugh when LP says "Sorry. Can I have some water? Can I borrow some chicken?" Although she cuts the laugh off as quickly as she can, she eventually gets over being mad--he never explains why he was late--and the two go ahead and have sex.
The next day, the Ambers (from the last season of the Bad Girls Club) arrive at the house, and it turns out that Kate is a massive fan. More excited by their arrival than she has been by anything since her bout with the swine flu, Kate attempts to curry favor with the two girls, who are in town preparing to shoot the pilot episode of "The Amber Show" for the Oxygen network. For old times sake, the Ambers hop into the confessional and record an old school Amber Show, inviting Kate & Kendra on as guests. After a couple of softballs, Kate goes ahead and starts talking shit about Lexie--calling her "ditzy" and making fun of the way she talks--and Kendra gets noticeably irritated. When Kate ignores Kendra's looks and continues on, Kendra leaves the room, throwing some more STFU faces on the way out of the room. Kate merely points to this as another indication that all of the girls hate her, "for no good reason." In a personal confessional, she defends herself further, saying "Nobody will ever understand the Bad Girl's Club, unless you've walked in our shoes."
That evening, the old Ambers take the girls out to a local bar, where nuAmber attempts to explain why everybody in the house doesn't like Kate. Amber M--the short, bubbly girl who will appear on the upcoming Bad Girls spin-off dating show--eventually admits that it's hard not to take the side of someone who is hated by the entire house, as she was in that same situation during her time on the show. The night ends poorly, with Kendra leaving in a fury when LP once again shows up incredibly late. This time, he just says "Sorry", no jokes. It doesn't work. The next day, Natalie calls and starts tearing into Kendra on the phone, to the point where Kendra just hangs up on her.
And then the end begins.
Amber is making fun of Kate to Lexie, imitating her sighs and scoffs, laughing at Kate's constant sleeping. Hearing the noise, Kate comes upstairs and demands to know what the problem is--surprisingly enough, Amber is perfectly blunt. "I don't like you", she says, going on to list the various things about Kate that back up this statement, and she eventually picks up the side of the couch that Kate is sitting on and moves it behind an arbitrary line she has taped onto the floor. Annie stops in to tell Kate that "you haven't learned anything from this experience, but we have", once again pointing to the oft-repeated Bad Girls Club argument, that time spent on this show makes for a personal growth experience. Pushed so far, Kate chooses not to join the girls at the recording of the Amber Show pilot, despite being the one girl in the house that is an actual fan of the two girls.
The Amber Show pilot is brief, a cheaply filmed interview show taking place on a small sound stage. The guest is a bearded hippie type, who is solemnly explaining that "Airsex" will soon be a sport that catches the attention of a nation. His imitation of "Airsex" is heavily edited, but it appears to be nothing more than when a human being pantomimes having sex while other people watch. Even the Ambers--forced to pay attention by dint of this being their show--seem bored by the experience.
That night, the Ambers have returned to the Bad Girls house, apparently just to hang out and use the pool. Kate has once again gone to bed early to the sounds of sarcastic remarks from her roommates. At some point she snaps, gets out of bed, and proceeds to physically destroy the other girls personal items. She shatters picture frames, tears clothes and throws things around. The noise attracts Kendra and Annie, who stand at the bottom of the stairs confused. Kate comes down, calmly tells Kendra that she loves her before hugging her, and then walks over to Annie, says "sorry", and punches her in the chin as hard as she can. It's a straight up sucker-punch, balled fist and everything, and it connects. Annie goes straight upstairs and starts crying, but she eventually collects herself and sets off to contact the police.
Standing outside, Amber confronts Kate, berating her for attacking Annie. After telling Kate that she picked on Annie because Annie "won't fight back", Kate grudgingly agrees by swinging at Amber, who instinctively dodges the blow and dives at her. The two immediately get into a nasty fight, some of which is obscured by the producers to hide Amber's naked breasts, which have come out of her swimsuit top. At this point, the other girls--including Amber M--get involved, desperately trying to separate the two as the credits roll.
Next week, the police arrive, and Annie will compare getting punched to the Holocaust.
That is not a joke.
-Martin Brown, Zeb L. West, Tucker Stone, 2010
Somebody was horrified when they figured out that I knew what the Bad Girls Club is. I tried to explain that I knew it from these blog posts but they wouldn't listen.
Dorm life is hard enough without having the Factual make people think I'm white trash, you guys.
Posted by: Chris Jones | 2010.03.05 at 16:37
Wait, was it a girl who got horrified? Because if it was a guy I don't care.
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2010.03.05 at 16:40
No, it was a girl. It was an awful moment.
(Dorm life isn't actually that hard at all)
Posted by: Chris Jones | 2010.03.05 at 20:23
OK, Lost. I think that the Flash-sideways reality is actually the ending of the show. In other words the new alternate 2004 in which the plane doesn't crash is where everyone on the island in the current timeline will end up. I've had this thought in my head since the premiere, but this weeks episode made me think I might be on to something.
Dogon had to leave the mainland and live on the island so that Jacob would save his son. He doesn't ever get to see his son again, but he knows that his son is safe. Fake Locke makes a similar offer to Sayid here. I tend to think that Sayid's acceptance of said offer will lead to Nadia being alive and well, but the consequence is that they can't be together.
Everyone from the island is still tied together, but in the flash sideways, their lives have been changed by the deals they've made (or still have yet to make) on the island.
Now, this theory brings up some questions like "What's up with disappearing Desmond" and "Why is Locke alive?" but we've still got 10 eps to figure some of it out. Also, if it's contact with Jacob that eventually brings our castaways and others (no pun intended) like Dogon to the island, maybe they need to make a deal with the Man-in-black/Smoke Monster to actually make it home.
My prediction: In the last episode or two, at the end of the current island timeline, Jack will get a cut on his neck. He'll forget the island, but when he shows up on 815 again, he's still bleeding.
That's my theory.
Posted by: E | 2010.03.05 at 23:12
Slowly, the candidates will become aware of their flash-sideways lives. At the end of the series, any candidate left alive will have their choice of reality to live in permanently. There are stakes that are being built in the alternate reality. Will Sayid choose a world where Nadia is alive but his love unrequited. Would Sawyer choose a world where he is still a con-man(?), but has a chance to find Juliet. Will Jack give up everything he has sacrificed in order to save his son? Which characters will have a moral problem even having the option? And what happens to the world if no one stays to replace Jacob on the island?
I base this theory off of two pop-culture works. One is the Superman comic "For The Man Who Has Everything" (also made into a Justice League Unlimited episode) and the other is the events at the end of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series.
I love getting to see a "new" version of these characters because for me that has always been the strong point of the series. The cryptography and subsequent water cooler talk has been fun, but I enjoy seeing the way each of the characters deals with the choices they've been given. For a TV show, they have been well written and acted. Terry O'Quinn has been awesome to watch this season!
Posted by: Mr. Rendón | 2010.03.06 at 18:05
I predict that Juliet ended up going "dutch" with Jack in parallel reality and marrying herself a doctor. Of course, it being Juliet, she isn't fated to ever enter into a lasting relationship so they divorced. HOWEVER, the baby she had with Jack is IN FACT Sawyer's kid from her time in Dharmaville. Does time travel work like that? Can she carry her fetus over?
Posted by: Sharif | 2010.03.08 at 10:35
Why would anyone be horrified at knowing what the Bad Girls Club is? Wouldnt that mean she too knows what it is in order for her to be horrified about it? Regardless of how and what, thats utterly ridiculous to be "horrifed" over.
Humans.... I swear.
Posted by: UCantBeSerious | 2010.03.23 at 18:34