Well, here I am. I’m a year older and I’m still watching Survivor and The Amazing Race. Jeff & I are spending this week and the next at Lake Texoma so my next few reviews might be shorter than usual but, that said, I wouldn’t miss these two shows for anything.

Last night’s episode of Survivor was everything that I love and hate about this show.

On the one hand, the show introduced one of those sudden twists that altered strategy for the day. The castaways were required to pair off and compete for immunity as a team. That meant that not only would two teammates be safe at tribal council but also that two would be voted off. This is exactly the type of twist that always annoys the heck out of me. With the amount of interesting people that the show has this season, why be in such a hurry to get rid of them?

The pairs were: Mike & Maggie, Christian & Carter, Thien An & Eric, Devin & Jelly (of course), Kilby & Kristin, and Lewis & Sharonda. Most of the players paired up strategically. Mike and Eric, who everyone wants to vote out, paired up with the relatively popular Maggie and Thien An. Lewis paired up with Sharonda because, wisely, he saw that she was a determined competitor who just needed someone to encourage her. Devin and Jelly teamed up because Jelly is in love with Devin and Devin is too stupid to realize that teaming up with her would just confirm everyone’s suspicions that they were an unbreakable pair.

The immunity challenge was a grueling, three-part competition that was ultimately won by Lewis and Sharonda. Devin & Jelly, as they always do during challenges, came on strong at the beginning but then fell apart at the very end. Eric, for his part, spent the challenge getting on everyone’s nerves. I’m sure there was some tricky editing involved but I laughed out loud at the montage of everyone getting annoyed with Eric.

At tribal council, Devin & Jelly were the obvious targets but Jelly—having been warned by Sharonda—played her immunity idol. The idol protected both her and her teammate. (This is where I get annoyed. I don’t mind the idol protecting the person who found it but allowing it to also protect their partner didn’t feel right to me.) Christian, who had an extra vote that he gave to Eric for some reason, played his Shot in the Dark and—IT WORKED! I think this is the second time that I’ve ever seen a Shot in the Dark actually work. Christian was safe and so was his teammate Carter. (Again, this just didn’t feel right to me. Christian sacrificed his Shot in the Dark while Carter did nothing but Carter was still safe from the vote.)

Devin & Jelly received ten votes but none of them counted. Carter and Christian received one vote and it didn’t count. Kristin and Kilby received one vote and became the first two jury members. (Brady, who was voted out last week, had to leave the jury due to a medical emergency.)

What I loved about this episode was that tribal council was messy and exciting. Though I don’t think either Devin or Carter should have been safe as a result, I respected that Jelly played her idol at the right time and that Christian took a risk that paid off. (That said, Carter probably would have just played his idol if Christian’s Shot in the Dark hadn’t worked.) Kristin has always struck me as being the HR Lady from Hell so I’m not sorry to see her leave. What sucks is that Kilby, one of the most genuinely interesting players on the beach, had to go down with her because of the stupid pairs twist.

But that’s Survivor!

The other big news from this episode was that Carter formed the Salt Alliance, with him, Lewis, Kilby, Thien An, Christian, and Maggie. It seems like it could be a strong alliance (even though they are now down a member) but Carter might want to be careful about coming on too strong.

We’ll see what happens next week!