Survivor: San Juan Del Sur...Adolescent Drama

Question of the week...

Is this game really going to be won by a couple with entitlement issues and a propensity to pout like teenagers?

This is Jaclyn in a snit because she didn't get picked to go on the reward.

This is Jaclyn refusing to talk to Jon, who snapped at her because he didn't want to hear about her petty troubles the minute he got back from Exile Island, where he starved for two days while she was back at camp chowing down on extra helpings of rice.

This is Jaclyn refusing to talk to Jon again because he talked to Missy instead of begging her to talk to him.

This is Jaclyn still refusing to talk to Jon five hours after the silent treatment commenced.

This is Jaclyn flirting with Alec in front of Jon instead of trying to resolve her differences with her boyfriend, who is also her partner in a game worth a million dollars.

This is Jon retaliating by refusing to talk to Jaclyn once she had finally decided that he had been punished enough.

I'm not sure that either of them possesses the maturity to handle the responsibility of a large sum of money without adult supervision.

Survivor: San Juan Del Sur...Trust No One

Object lesson of the week...

Selflessness guarantees a Survivor nothing but deprivation and misery.

Jeremy sacrificed lunch on a yacht to solidify his brand new alliance with Jon and Jaclyn, known traitors to every alliance they've had in the game.

Jon showed his appreciation for Jeremy's sacrifice by allowing him to be sent to Exile Island, even though there was no Immunity Idol for him to find there because Jon had already found it and kept it a secret.

When Jeremy realized that he never should have trusted someone that had repeatedly betrayed anyone foolish enough to trust him, Jon decided to eliminate Jeremy before Jeremy could eliminate him.

Ironically, Jeremy talked about the importance of trust at Tribal Council right before he was betrayed by a member of his core alliance, who had inexplicably allowed herself to be manipulated by someone that she had previously admitted to being unable to trust.

Sacrifice does not ensure trust in Survivor. Just ask the starving, exhausted guy that got sent to the Jury by the same people that he had sacrificed himself for.

Survivor: San Juan Del Sur...Who's The Boss?

Question of the week...

When a couple disagrees about an important decision, who gets to make the call?

Jaclyn became annoyed with Alec, Wes, and Keith, who did not accord her what she deemed to be the proper respect due her, and informed Missy and Baylor that the guys' behavior had cost them her vote, as well as Jon's because he would vote the way she told him to.

Meanwhile, Alec's confidence in Jon's ability to keep his woman in line led him to tell Keith that it was unnecessary to talk with Jaclyn about the impending vote because she would vote the way Jon told her to.

Jon responded to Jaclyn's insistence that they not vote with Josh's alliance, because of the way the guys treated her, with the logical argument that voting with Jeremy's alliance would not benefit them at the end of the game, since it was his belief that the Jury would give Jeremy the million dollars instead of them.

Josh's alliance lost its leader that night at Tribal Council, where Jaclyn and Jon cast votes based on Jaclyn's emotion rather than Jon's logic.

Jaclyn was right. Jon voted the way she told him to.

Survivor: San Juan Del Sur...Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage is frequently used as a military term, where non-combatants are unintentionally killed or wounded as a result of the attack on legitimate enemy targets.

The combatants were Missy, who resented Dale for his distrust of her daughter, Baylor, and his constant policing of the tribe's rice, and Dale, who begrudged the ex-Hunahpus every extra portion of rice that Missy served to them.

Battle lines were drawn, allies secured, and faster than you can say "self-centered bossy bitch" and "that guy picking on my kid" it was time for the first formal skirmish of their campaign.

Dale's daughter, Kelley, non-combatant, resident peacemaker, and the only member of her two-person troop to decline to engage in perpetuating the hostilities, was eliminated in the spirit rather than the letter of the notion of collateral damage, since the demise of her Survivor life had been intentional.

Apparently, the combatants deemed a legitimate attack on one another to be too risky and targeted one another's offspring instead.

I doubt that will be the last violation of the rules of war.

Survivor: San Juan Del Sur...Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Question of the week...

When is a kingpin not a kingpin?

When his power is as imaginary as his ego is inflated.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) defines a delusion as "a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence."

Despite glaring evidence to the contrary--his tribe blatantly ignoring his edicts and Jeff openly mocking his pathetic attempts to bargain with him--Drew saw himself as a despot and his fellow tribe members as serfs whose fates were subject to his whims.

Plagued by the paranoia that often accompanies such delusions, Drew became convinced that Kelley was the "mastermind" of a girls alliance dedicated to overthrowing his dictatorship.

The math that negated the potential success of such a plot was patiently, and repeatedly, explained to the Survivor despot, who dismissed it because it did not support his belief.

Psychology Today defines a self-fulfilling prophecy as "a belief that comes true because we act as if it is already true."

Drew's conviction and thoroughly obnoxious behavior united the ladies against him, turning a perceived threat into a real one that owed its success to the chaos that Drew's "leadership" created among the men.

Perhaps Drew should have spent less time objectifying women and labeling them bitches and more time paying attention to the real threat on his tribe...Natalie.