The big story from this week’s episode of Survivor: One World could be one of three stories. First, Matt’s arrogant and ultimately misinformed demeanor. Second, the men’s 2004 Yankees-like collapse to the women at the immunity challenge. Third, the brutal weather.

Some reviews might only cover one or two. Here at TV Fanatic, we’re covering everything.

We’re not, however, going to bury the lead: Matt going home. Frankly, it was awesome. Sure, the guy might be sexy and know it (he works out) but he’s also a jerk. He’ll tell you he doesn’t care, but I’ll bet most of the women’s tribe ultimately would not have been attracted to him. What does he have left going for him?

Beyond the life challenges he obviously faces, Matt struggles with math, too. He was so happy with his four person "muscle alliance" that he neglected to notice four votes is not enough in a tribe of nine. Erroneously Matt figured the rest of the tribe would fall in line with his dominant alliance. All his alliance ended up doing was pushing the odd group together.

Not only did Matt alienate that vital fifth vote, he had so little chance of coming back the rest of his alliance bailed on him as well. We don’t know for sure, but based on how the votes were revealed there was one vote for Bill (owner unknown) one vote for Colton (Matt) and the rest for Matt. 

Jay and Bill could see the writing on the wall with their alliance and backed out quickly. As Jay said, what choice did he really have if he was not in the numbers? No point in staying on a sinking ship. As for James and Bill, they were not quoted as moving on, but the votes make it clear.

Of course the men would not be at Tribal Council if not for an epic collapse at the immunity challenge. However, I actually wasn’t surprised. When I saw that the callers and thus puzzle doers were Sabrina and Bill I turned to my girlfriend and said that the women would win the challenge. 

Admittedly I lost my faith in the women when the men built their large lead but ultimately I suppose my premise was correct: Sabrina would kill Bill in the puzzle. Well, at least the women would kill the men. 

Nobody has shown themselves to be particularly sharp on the men. But Kim emerged as a potential force when it comes to puzzle challenges. Without even handling the puzzle pieces Kim essentially walked Sabrina through the entire puzzle challenge. Sabrina will get the credit, but Kim was the mastermind.

Another point of note from the challenge was the pairing of Kim and Chelsea when blindfolded. In fact all three of the women’s pairings were interesting. Kim and Chelsea are obvious; they could run the game if paired up. Alicia and Kat were another interesting pair. Basically the opposite of Kim and Chelsea in my mind. Lastly was Monica and Christina, the “old” women left.

The point of bringing this up is that the pairings seem made along personal lines vs. challenge lines. The girls who are most comfortable with each other were paired together. This could be very relevant when trying to determine how the women break down later in the game.

What made the women’s victory of even greater note was their survival of two or three brutal rainstorms before and after their victory at the reward challenge. If anyone has any doubts about the authenticity of the game of Survivor, hopefully it was answered this week. Those girls were battered.

We’ve all been cold and wet and miserable before. For most of us we know the misery is only temporary until we can get back in our warm and dry homes. For the players on Survivor, the misery only ends when the rain ends. If the rain goes on for three days there’s nothing they can do.

Even when the rain stops the women did not experience much relief. They were still soaking wet and cold and had no way of getting dry. They were forced to an awkward situation of resorting to begging the men for warmth. That’s tough.

More from this episode:

• Where did Chelsea get those thigh-high yellow socks? Those have to be warm.
• I really enjoyed the twist on a memory challenge at the reward challenge this week. It was doubly good in how it exposed how not smart Kat and Troyzan are.
• Jeff’s really good at his job. It was amazing how well he challenged Colton’s seemingly very confident assertion that it was obvious he’d be hanging out with the women over the men. Colton kept trying to play up that he was gay and that’s why and Jeff shot that down without needing to talk about sexuality at all. Well played, sir.