Things are getting heated…

So this week, I think, was very intense. I actually enjoyed the episode; I’ve been disagreeing with a lot of things said or done on the show, however now that we are finished with the second week, I feel there is a better opportunity to come back and revisit what roles and conflicts have been set in place.

In the end it was Dale that was voted out, he tried to “buy” his safety from being voted out by saying he had an immunity idol and that he would give it to Jon if they all didn’t vote him out.  I feel that Dale specifically filled the role of the compromiser. Essentially he knew he was going to be voted out so he tried to solve the problem by compromising with his members. Julie, who had a rough time this week, is a follower to me. It seems that she has volunteered or been okay with being asked to sit out multiple times; She was also very upset with being in the cold all night. I don’t blame her even though she is on survivor. The Aggressor is someone who puts others down or is sarcastic to get what they want. Even though they are on separate teams the twin brothers, Drew and Alec, and even though Drew was voted out, are the aggressors of the whole game to me. Both of them continuously put others down or not believe in them because they are a girl, etc. Jon and Jacquelyn are also followers on their team. I feel that most of their decisions are based off of what everyone else has already done. The last two episodes, the vote came down to Jon and Jacquelyn where they had to make a decision that could change the whole team but as long as they were okay they usually voted the safer way.

Jeremy is one of the most interesting people on the show to me and seems to always share his opinion, a lot. I think he fits into two different roles, the encourager-supporter role and the gatekeeper. When Jeremy, even though it was for his own selfish hidden agenda ways, he comforted Julie when she was having a tough morning. He encouraged her to continue with the games he needed her and everyone else did too. It made her feel better, but to me kind of threw her into her follower role, specifically to Jeremy. Jeremy has been a leader from day one and to me is a gatekeeper because he seems to be the one either making the final decision or just doing whatever needs to be done. He monitors everyone else keeping them on task and headed in the right direction. I feel like Natalie is overlooked in a a huge sense. Her sister was voted off right off the bat, I think she learned from her sisters experience not to be too aggressive with the men or they would become a threat. In a way she became a follower to turn the spot light off of her, but when I saw the immunity challenge, where she volunteered to go to exile island she became a tension releaser. After Reed won the challenge for the blue team he had a really tough decision to make because whoever went with Baylor wouldn’t be eating for the night. So by volunteering, Natalie released that awkward tension for Reed having to pick.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about a major conflict that the blue team had.  I feel that when the blue team ran out food and ended up winning food the next day is a procedural conflict. Which then related back to an original Substantive conflict. The blue team thus far, even though they have been winning challenges, have had issues since the beginning; all the boys wanted to vote out the girls and all the girls wanted the guys out. They were so worried about who would lead them that it seemed everyone tried to at the start. They couldn’t even come up with a solid plan for making the fire (losing the flint in the beginning). When they went threw all their food  it made me think overall it was a procedural conflict. Jeremy wanted to conserve rice, where people like julie, natalie etc. were continuously eating the rice. They had to trade all of their protection from rain away because they couldn’t keep everyone on the same page with the rice situation. Then the next day they got food, but still had no shelter. I think if they settled who was doing what once in for all they could make the game a little easier, but that’s a lot easier to say when I am eating mac n cheese and watching the games on my nice fluffy couch.