Episode Report Card Sara M: A+ | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Nobag Is Gabon Spelled Stupid
By Sara M | Season 17 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.13.2008
The new tribe arrives, and here comes Marcus, looking like a freshly-washed douche bag. Charlie and Corinne shoot him sad love eyes, and Probst tells them not to speak to the jury. "The game is slowly shifting into their hands," he says, as Marcus looks very self-important. He starts talking to Randy about the reward challenge, asking him why there was so much tension before that last easy shot. Randy says that the shot Matty wanted to try would have probably made it, while the shot Randy wanted Matty to take definitely would have made it in, but no one would "shut up" and let him say that. Charlie says that he just wanted both sides of the argument to calm down in order to communicate effectively.
And then there's this part of the show. Probst says that Randy seems to have left his original Fang tribe mates behind, never to be missed. Before Randy can answer, Crystal, who has been silent in Tribal Councils for too long, has something to say. "Why do you have issues with me?" she asks. "Why?" Randy says. "Why do you have issues with Crystal, yes," Crystal says, her rage forcing her to stop using pronouns. It's third person from here on out, folks! Randy tries to answer, but Crystal tells him to let her finish, just like she let him finish. Randy is confused, pointing out that he hasn't had the chance to start, let alone finish. "What is it that I did to Randy for Randy to be bashing Crystal so much at Kota Kamp?" Randy is more than happy to answer, saying the nine days they spent on a tribe together were a "living hell" for him because of Crystal and her "boy," GC. "Okay," Crystal says, and right there, she knows exactly what Randy's problem is with her and shuts down. Randy then refers to GC as Crystal's "posse," and Sugar buries her face in her hand as Randy says that Crystal and GC "ran the tribe like it was a gang." Except that Crystal and GC never ran the tribe. They didn't even seem to get along when Randy was in Fang with them, as I recall GC telling Crystal to do something during the three hours he was the Fang leader and Crystal not doing it and resenting him for it. But the fact is that Crystal and GC are black, so in Randy's mind, they are aligned and they are gang members. Because Randy is racist, and it's so deeply ingrained that he doesn't see any problem with revealing that wonderful facet of his personality to his tribe mates and millions of viewers worldwide. Or maybe he just saw all the burning wood and thought he was at one of his KKK rallies. And Crystal, who is usually ready, willing, and able to do verbal battle at Tribal Council, just says "okay. All right," perfectly calm. Because she realizes that Randy's hatred of her has nothing to do with her and everything to do with him, and there's no point in arguing with him about it. And he just did more damage to himself and his position in the game with his own words than she could have. Randy asks if Crystal wants more reasons. "If you feel like you have to say some more, we ain't got nothing but time," Crystal says, perfectly happy to let the self-destruction continue. But Randy can't think of anything else, so he just shrugs. Wow. I've never seen anything like that at a Tribal Council before. In fact, Survivor usually tries to hide contestants' racist or homophobic or anti-whatever else sides from the viewers by not showing such footage. That's why none of the anti-Jew comments supposedly good Christian contestants made about Eliza made it to the air during the Vanuatu season.