Survivor: David vs. Goliath Episode 1 Analysis "Appearances Are Deceiving"

"We're going to lose an artery to our heart."

-Pat Cusack

Survivor: David vs. Goliath kicked off with a solid season premiere even if the ending was a major downer.  Because we never went to Tribal Council, there isn't a ton of strategy to unpack here, but we did get some great character moments throughout the episode.  I really like this cast and the first episode was a promising start.  Now let's take a look at how each of our players did and find out who has got it going on.

Who Played Well:

Let's start over on the David tribe.  First we have both Christian and Lyrsa who were chosen to compete in the opening reward challenge.  I think they made the best possible choices they could have made and Christian slayed that puzzle.  They did a great job and gave themselves a great first impression for their tribe.  Plus, we saw both of them form a solid bond with another member of their tribe.  Christian with Gabby and Lyrsa with Elizabeth.  Good on all four of them.

Next we have Jessica, who we got to see bond with Carl.  Later, when everyone was sharing in the shelter, Bi bonded with Jessica as well.  These types of things are great foundations for alliances.

Then we have Davie who I think endeared himself to the rest of the tribe when he caught an octopus.  Plus we got to see him bond with Carl.

Over on the Goliath tribe, we got to see what may be the beginning of a showmance between Dan and Kara, which is extremely stupid, but it hasn't blow up in their faces yet.  For now, they have a tight bond and it seems like Natalia is the only one who might know about it.  Plus, both Natalia and Kara know Dan has an idol.  Good for them, not so good for Dan, but still a net positive night for him.

We got to see Angelina and Alison bond on their idol hunt, so that's something for then.  I don't think losing the reward challenge hurt Alison or John any.  They were just dealt a bad hand.

Finally, I liked Jeremy's awareness of his situation.  He noticed most of his tribe was out looking for the idol, pointed it out to the rest, and got them to stop working and go looking.  Do what the rest of your tribe is doing is a good rule of thumb and Jeremy did just that.


Who Sucked:

Going back to the David tribe, we have two players to talk about.  First is Carl, who did manage to bond with both Jessica and Davie, but single-handily cost his tribe the challenge.  I don't think this would have gotten him voted out, but I think he was lucky Pat got evaced.  I wouldn't have been surprised if Nick had targeted him.

Speaking of Nick, he tried to scheme and plot too hard and too fast out the gate.  Plus he wasn't helping around camp and people noticed.  He did help himself by opening up about his mom, but if Pat hadn't been evaced, I'm willing to bet Nick would have gone home.

Over at Goliath, we have two more castaways to discuss.  First we have Mike, who had a huge target on his back out the gate for being on The Amazing Race and for his success in Hollywood and he just made things worse by looking for the idol too much.

Then we have Natalie, who is not only extremely bossy, but has just an abysmal social game.  We haven't really seen her connect with anyone and she barely talks to the others.  I have to wonder if she doesn't want to be there anymore because her behavior doesn't make sense otherwise.

We also have John and Alec who really didn't do anything positive or negative in the episode.

Finally, we have Pat.  It was a bummer to see him go out the way he did.  He was a fun character and made things interesting on the David tribe.  He got off on the wrong foot with people, but did a great job with the shelter and the others seemed to be warming up to him.  Even if he wasn't evacuated, there was a decent chance he would have been voted out, but I would have liked to see him go out on his feet rather than in a freak accident.


Verdict:

So, who won the Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going Award?  For those who don't know, this award goes to the player who did the best in a given episode.  The first award goes to Kara Kay.  This may be a bit surprising because Dan seems like the more obvious choice.  The two of them both have a strong bond that no one really knows about yet, but Dan is the one that found the idol.  The reason he doesn't win the award is because he told Kara and Natalia about the idol.  This puts Kara in the strongest position on her tribe.  She has the most information and the most room to maneuver with it.  So for forming the bond with Dan she wins the award.

The other award to hand out is the Not The Player For Me Award, which goes to the person who played the worst, but didn't get eliminated.  The names for the awards come from the song: "Stacy's Mom" if you don't get the reference.  This award goes to Natalie Cole for her general bossiness and utterly abysmal social game.

I really enjoyed the season premiere, even with the lack of Tribal Council.  We got to know almost everyone and this sets up what is hopefully a very exciting season of Survivor.