Survivor Game Changers

Another moment occurred on Survivor last night - not as momentous or history-making as when Varner outed Zeke as trans - but still one of those events that Survivor fans will remember for a long time. I'm not talking about Debbie getting blindsided AGAIN, although that was quite awesome for those of us that are highly annoyed by Debbie's smug "my alliance rules the world" mentality. No, I am of course talking about Cirie's struggle in the reward challenge.

For the reward challenge, the contestants were split into two teams: Troyzan, Tai, Zeke, Sarah, and Cirie on one team; Culpepper, Andrea, Sierra, Aubrey, and Debbie on the other. It was a schoolyard pick, and Michaela was not chosen. Michaela said it herself: The teams were picked based on alliances and strategy, not on physical ability. That is why the strongest woman was left out of the challenge. 

It was a tough challenge - an obstacle course in the water. Even Tai, who bested the beast Ozzy in an endurance challenge the week before, struggled in this event. The contestants had to swim to a wall, get over it, slide down it, get up on a platform, tread through more water, then make it across a balance beam and swim to a dock. Cirie was the last person on her team to attempt the course. And they were already behind in the challenge, but not by that much. Cirie could not make it through the course. She got over the wall, but she couldn't hoist herself up on the platform to get to the next part. Her team started falling further behind.

Finally Sarah swam out to her and helped her up on the platform. That meant that Sarah had to complete that part of the course again - in theory anyway. But she didn't have to in the end, because the other team won easily.

There were multiple important elements to this moment. First of all, the other team was exceptionally subdued in their celebration, out of respect to Cirie's struggle. And Probst, who is often so critical of contestants who don't do well in the challenges, was remarkably kind and encouraging to Cirie. I guess even hard-hearted, holier-than-thou Probst recognized a teachable moment when it smacked him in the face. He told Cirie that even though the challenge was over, they would keep it going if she wanted to try to finish. It was already an inspiring situation, made even more remarkable and uplifting when her teammates swam out to that part of the course and surrounded her as she attempted to make it across the balance beam. Troyzan told her to be calm and believe in herself. And Cirie made it across the balance beam. She swam to the dock, and the members of the other team pulled her out of the water and hugged her. Yes, I'm a sentimental fool. But it was a beautiful moment. This is what Survivor is all about. Yes, it's about the alliances and the blindsides and the ability to outwit and outlast in the quest to win a million dollars. But the show is also often about persevering, about triumph in the face of adversity, about conquering fears and insecurities and succeeding in tasks you never imagined you would be able to accomplish. Those are some of my favorite moments of Survivor. 

librarianintx