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Survivor

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: May 8, 2008

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Survivor, “If It Smells Like a Rat, Give It Cheese” (Season 16, Episode 13). [Stream on Prime Video.]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Before we begin, can we say with some degree of authority that Survivor: Micronesia had the craziest episode titles of any season? This is an unscientific study, but in addition to the mouthful written above that was this episode’s title, we got gems like “He’s a Ball of Goo!” “The Sounds of Jungle Love,” as well as mangled idioms like “Baked, Barbecued, and Fried” and “I’m in Such a Hot Pickle.” God bless those nutrition-deprived schemers for giving such good quote.

Anyway, this barn-burner of an episode. Survivor: Micronesia started out so bad, you guys. The idea for this season was “Fans vs. Favorites,” essentially a way to do an all-star season (their last one was in season 8) without repeating themselves. So the idea was that one tribe of returning players would face off against a tribe of “fans.” Of course, “fans” just meant new players. We’d long passed the point in which every new contestant was a lifelong fan of the show. So what it really was was a mixture of fans and recruits going up against all-stars. Every time Survivor has done this concept, starting with Micronesia, the results have been an absolute bulldozing of the newbies. You’d think Jeff Probst would anticipate this, since he’s so fond of hollering about challenges with “learning curves.” Survivor most certainly has a learning curve, and it’s a curve that helps the returning players just wipe the floor with their co-called “fans.”

As a result, the first half of Survivor: Micronesia is a near-total wash, only spiced up by Cirie shanking Yau Man and Jonathan Penner’s untimely exit from the game due to injury. Once the tribes merged, however, the game took off in a BIG way. Now free to plot against their own, favorites Parvati, Cirie, and Amanda pulled together henchwomen Natalie and Alexis to form a girls’ alliance that laid waste to the guys. Ozzy? Blindsided (rather spectacularly). James? Left the game due to injury, but the writing was already on the wall for him too. Once things got down to the top 7, the only thing standing in the way of an all-female endgame was Erik (the 22-year-old ice cream scooper with Farrah hair and a trusting demeanor) going on a run of immunity-challenge wins. Which he started to do. The girls had to axe one of their own (bye, Alexis), and another challenge win by Erik meant they’d have to cannibalize yet again. Because it’s not like they could convince Erik to give up his immunity, right?

ERIK, NO!

With Probst at the helm, Survivor does like to play around with gender stereotypes. Men get to be strong leaders. Women get to be ballast or, on a good day, deceptive jezebels. That’s the role Parvati and her cohorts stepped into as they used their charm and beauty, siren-like, to lure Erik’s immunity idol towards them, before dashing him on the rocks.

It was a thing of beauty, and not just because of the pretty faces who made it happen. It was a BALLER move, and Survivor fans rightly recognize it as such.

[You can stream Survivor‘s “If It Smells Like a Rat, Give It Cheese” on Prime Video.]