Okay. I’ll be honest with you. I barely recognized anyone one the “Favorites” tribe because I have tended to give up on a season 2-3 episodes in for the last couple of years. I just haven’t been intrigued or interested by any of the twists or contestants themselves. I definitely haven’t been excited about a season. But last night? As my husband and I watched some great gameplay unfold - I thought, “THIS is why I used to love this show.”

I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that when Chet failed that challenge so miserably - that he’d be out. Survivors like to choose the easy out that everyone can agree on. He would have required no strategy or convincing to the majority of the tribe. Easy choice. The end. Until Mike started trying to spearhead some safety measure to make sure that all bases were covered if Kathy found the other immunity idol. By holding those lectures he made Joel feel like he was trying to take the leadership role. This flagged dangerous to Joel because he wanted to be the leader. So, he spearheaded his own campaign to get Mary - Mike’s main ally - out of the game. AND IT WORKED.

Now - I think Joel could have been a little more gentle about convincing people. He might have been too, “We can’t let him control us! Rawr!” to give him much support later. I mean - if they didn’t like Mike controlling them - they won’t like Joel doing it either. But - if you paid attention at the end credits - Joel did NOT vote for Mary. He voted for Tracy. Now - is he hoping to be able to claim ignorance by doing that? Who knows. But it made an interesting finale to a great strategy. How will the fallout shape up and will Joel continually claim not to have voted for Mary and be able to be telling the truth? It’s interesting and we loved watching it all unfold.

Of course - I’m not really on Team Joel yet - something about him to rubs me wrong. But most of the time the interesting players are not the ones I like. And I’m okay with that. As long as they don’t make me hate them, I’ll still enjoy watching them play.

Last night’s tribal council was a perfect one for a team of fans. It shows that a true fan can recognize a dangerous leader before he takes complete control of a tribe, and knock him down a few notches in advance. I tribe of newbies might not have cared what Mike was planning and would have just written Chet down to keep things stable. These guys didn’t. Which means this could be an even more interesting season than I had predicted.

Let’s hope.