Perhaps (alright, certainly) Marty is not the Greatest Survivor Player of All Time.  However, as last night's episode showed, Marty might be the luckiest Survivor player of all time.

In my defense, I merely suggested that Marty’s place on top of the podium was possible after a very confusing tribal council last week.  We now know that Marty had no idea what was going on.  Rather, the young La Florians simply confused all of us with their big talk about Marty only to pull a 180 and plan to vote off Kelly B instead.  Marty calls the La Florians bluff, doesn’t play the idol and still survives.

This week, Marty foolishly gives his idol to Sash (more on that later) who has told the audience that he plans on double crossing Marty.  Then, completely unexplained, the young La Florians (Brenda, Kelly S, Jud, Sash) make another confusing move and vote off Jill instead.  How lucky can this guy get?

Similar to last week, we remain in the dark on what happened at tribal council.  Even though Sash had the idol, the La Florians still split the vote.  Why?  Just pick one, Marty or Jill, and put five votes on them.  Why split the vote and risk that someone flips or screws up or does something unforeseen and neither is sent home.   What am I missing here?

The only thing we know is Marty was annoyed with the result of the vote.  The logical guess has to be that the idol deal that Marty made with Sash included Jill’s safety as well.  So the young La Florians decided to double cross Marty…by voting Jill out? 

Brenda’s rationale for not trying the ask-for-the-idol plan was that if they doubled-cross Marty and sent him home there was no way that Jill would trust them.  How is double-crossing Marty AND leaving him in the game a better scenario?  Do the young La Florians think this is The Godfather and Marty will be loyal to them by submission?  I hope we get an explanation to this rationale.

Marty’s rationale for giving the idol to Sash was funny, but not very bright.  “I've got to give the idol to somebody,” Marty said.  “So I'm either giving it to Jeff tonight or I'm giving it to Sash.”  Yes, Marty, physically these are the same acts, but the result is not the same.  Give the idol to Jeff and you’ve made it to the final twelve no matter what.  Give it to Sash and you’re betting on the word of someone who just voted out his own kind over you.  Not exactly the most trustworthy group.

He further justified his move by leaning on the ridiculous promise by Sash that if La Flor lost the next immunity challenge, Sash would give him the idol back.  Marty believed that giving the idol to Sash would guarantee that he survived two more tribal councils and thus could possibly make the merge that way.  Perhaps Marty is not a strong numbers guy.

The only way two tribal councils matter more than one is if they merge at eleven players.  Historically, with a 20 person start means that there will be a final three, not a final two.  This means an odd number of jury members.  Thus, if there’s a merge, it’ll be with twelve people left or ten and Marty needs to survive either one tribal or three. 

Playing the immunity idol at last night’s tribal council guarantees he makes the merge if it is done with twelve players remaining and leaves open the possibility of La Flor winning the subsequent two immunity challenges to survive to ten players.  It is a pretty simple concept.  Give the idol to Jeff and you’re alive no matter what until your tribe loses an immunity challenge.  Give the idol to Sash and you’re putting your game in another man’s hands.  

More thoughts form this week:

• I really wanted Espada to lose one or both challenges.  They didn’t deserve to win after keeping Dan in the game.
• Jane’s bitterness will come back to haunt her, eventually.  For the time being, I get her rationale for why she’s upset with Marty and Jill.  However, to say what she did about not caring if the young La Florians are lazy and then hiding in the woods to cook your own fish, that attitude is not going to get her far.
• When Jill figured out the clue to the idol and informed Marty how to find the idol, I cheered her foresight.  Marty even commented that the idol is “A curse at times, a good thing at times.”  I never imagined that Marty giving the idol to Sash would result in Jill getting voted out.  Wild.
• Benry looks like a huge threat to win this game.  Chase is focused on who’s more of an individual threat, Yve or Dan, but the bigger threat by a long shot is Benry.  He’s been dominating the challenges and will continue to do so in the individual stage.