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.

Survivor: San Juan Del Sur...Lying and Trash Talking

I missed last week--I'm a Tigers fan, I was in mourning--but, apparently, I didn't miss much.

Rocker cut a deal with his new best pal Jeremy to protect each other's helpless women folk.

But Val, who apparently has a permanent seat in the front pew at the church of Why Tell A Small Lie When You Can Tell Two Really Big Ones, rendered Rocker's aid useless when she claimed to have two immunity idols, even though she had none because she couldn't be bothered to do more than take a cursory glance around. I search more thoroughly for the Chapsticks that the family cat jacks from me. Val will not be missed.

This week, Rocker made a target of himself with a public demonstration of the boorish behavior that made him a reviled sports figure and contributed to the sullying of his baseball career.

A man telling a woman that "if she were a man, he would knock her teeth out" is cause for concern, not an opportunity to gossip about said man's controversial past. I'm looking at you, Jeff Probst.

Fortunately, most of Rocker's tribe were as disgusted with him as we are and sent him packing, with the immunity idol that he was too arrogant to play still in his pocket.

If Julie McGee had any sense, she would have sent him packing too.