Episode Recap: Cook Islands, Week 1

Episode: I Can Forgive Her But I Don't Have to Because She Screwed With My Chickens Original Air Date: September 14, 2006 Do you find yourself longing wistfully for the days before De-Segregation? Does the term "separate but equal" sound like a pretty good idea to you? Do you ever wonder why people can't just go be with their own kind? Nah, me either. Yet, in an apparent effort to turn back the clock on American race relations 40 years, Mark Burnett and the other powers that be at Survivor have chosen to divide this season's batch of contestants into tribes based on their ethnicity - Black ("Hiki"), Latino ("Aitu"), Asian ("Puka"), and White ("Raro"). CBS calls this a "social experiment". Social experiment my grandmother's bunyons. This decision was made in order to create controversy, which in turn creates "buzz". And "buzz", good or bad, will almost always translate to higher initial ratings for any program. But really, the segregation isn't the worst aspect of this season's Survivor. What bothers me is this - if you're White, who the Heck are you supposed to root for? If you root for the Home Team, you appear to be racist. If you root for one of the other tribes, you appear to be either trying too hard not to appear racist, or you seem like a reverse-racist (whatever that is). Fortunately, I've decided to avoid this conundrum altogether by hating all of these losers equally right off the bat. My disdain is based on a prejudice that is rooted deep inside me - not for any particular race, but for Survivor contestants in general. I would make an exception for the contestants in Season 1 because they didn't really know what they were getting into. But anyone who had seen Season 1 would know that signing up for this show means signing one's dignity away for the off chance of maybe winning a million dollars, because there's something about being half-naked, sun-burnt, hungry, and stinky that causes people to be somewhat less than polite. By that I mean what is supposed to be a friendly contest eventually descends into Lord of the Flies. And by "eventually" I mean by the end of the first episode. Of course, there's the added charm of showing the worst side of yourself to millions of people each week. So how can I be expected to care about anyone who chooses to do this? But on to the episode. It starts out with all 20 "castaways" frantically scurrying about an old wooden ship trying to grab what supplies they can and throwing them overboard on small wooden rafts. Jeff Probst tells us the castaways have two minutes to scavenge what they can before they have to jump off the boat and row to shore. Among the supplies - chickens. That's right, live chickens. Here's another thing - apparently chickens can float. I did not know that. But we find that out as one of the castaways throws one of the poor birds overboard. It misses the raft and lands in the water, bobbing easily on the surface. Thirty seconds into the first episode and I've already learned something. As the hapless castaway jumps into the water after his chicken, Jeff yells out, "That's right! Get that chicken! You're gonna need that for food!" That Jeff, always being helpful. The rest of the post can be found here