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Survivor Cook Islands: Sekou Gets A Really Long Break
Episode 1 Recap by Professor Dan
September 15, 2006
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Is there anything cooler than a new season of "Survivor"? Well, maybe a new season of "The Amazing Race", but in any case, I was really pumped watching the start of this one.
They go back to their roots—Season One, in fact—and have the castaways jump off a ship onto tiny rafts after a two-minute mad scramble to first salvage whatever they could. As they dash around, Jeff Probst explains the whole idea of the show to us (in case there’s actually somebody who has never seen "Survivor".) It IS exciting, though, watching people scrambling after chickens and bananas and rope and bamboo and whatever, before setting out paddling. We are also told about this season’s controversial twist (the fact that the 20 castaways will be split into four Tribes based on race or ethnicity.) Then, of course, Jeff finishes his intro with the immortal "39 days, 20 people… one Survivor!"
How freakin’ cool IS that? Anybody else have goose bumps? Damn I love this show!!
As the Survivor music plays, we meet the four tribes:
The Caucasians are going to be called "Rarotonga", or "Raro" for short: they are Jessica, Jonathan, Candice, Parvati (a girl, and a cute one at that), and Adam.
The African-Americans are "Manihiki", or "Hiki" for short: Nate, Sundra, Sekou, Rebecca, and Stephannie make up this Tribe. (No, it's not a typo-- the CBS site spells Steph's name with two "n's." Great-- another non-standard spelling of "Stephanie" to confuse me!)
The Asians are "Puka Puka", or just "Puka": they are Cao Boi (pronounced "Cowboy"), Yul, Becky, Brad, and Jenny.
Finally, the Latino-Americans are "Aitutaki", or just "Aitu", and they consist of Cristina, Ozzy, Cecilia, J.P., and Billy.
After the commercial, we find all of them paddling away. We get a sampling, via the confessional, of some of the Survivors’ reactions to the racial split:
Ozzy, a Mexican-American waiter from CA, says his first reaction was "Oh God, this is gonna be hard." He explains that he thinks that the common ethnicity might cause them to "clash on things."
Sundra, an African-American actress from NYC, could care less about the race thing, saying "When it comes to surviving, it’s a HUMAN effort."
Yul, a Korean-American lawyer and management consultant from CA, is worried about playing into "caricatures and stereotypes."
Parvati, a white female boxer and cocktail waitress from Los Angeles, giggles about the racial splitting: "Is that… kosher?" She does think it’ll be a "cool social experiment", though.
We join Aitu as Billy, a heavy-metal guitarist and would-be pro wrestler from NYC, is joking that his parents rowed AWAY from an island to make a better life in the US, and now he’s rowing back TO an island! His roots are in the Dominican Republic, and he tells us that he thinks the Hispanics have an advantage, because they’re all from Caribbean or South American countries, and so they are "used to the tropical setting."
(I had to laugh at this one. Of the five Hispanics, only Cecilia and Ozzy weren’t born here in the good old USA. Is he saying that Hispanics have "tropical genes" or something?)
Cecilia tells us that the ethnic split allows them to "represent our community in a positive way."
Once they arrive, Billy makes like he knows how to build a shelter (and a toilet!), but it quickly becomes apparent he doesn’t. Ozzy, on the other hand, clambers up a tree and knocks down coconuts for the Tribe. One of his tribe mates tells us Ozzy looked like Mogli from "The Jungle Book" climbing that tree.
Over to Puka, paddling along. Cao Boi is cracking jokes about how much five "little Asians" weigh, and about rice and whatnot. His Tribe mates aren’t laughing: one girl says "no more stereotypes", and he responds "Facts are facts." In confessional, we find out that Cao Boi is not American; he is a Vietnamese refugee who survived the Vietnam War and settled here. He says Puka can fly under the radar: "Nobody suspects these little people, with slanted eyes, to see anything, or be strong enough to DO anything, or maybe even (they) don’t speak English. People always underestimate the Asians."
(While he says all this in a smiling, joking way, Cao Boi is clearly into the whole racial thing.)
We find out via a confessional.....
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