By Don Hart

Up to the merge, the physically strong Survivors have the advantage. After the merge they are targets. The question Survivor China fans must be wondering after Episode 5 is why the Survivor's Producers felt they had to handicap the physically strong so early. By scripting a twist where two "kidnappees" were swept away to an inferior position in the opposing camp, the physically strong were given an extra hurdle in the game that was indeed unfair.

Unless Aaron was edited badly, his parting words made him seem like a nice guy, with social skills that might have carried him much further along in the game. It was Erik who first picked up on the possibility of kidnapping Aaron and then voting him out. Yet it was Peih-Gee who came up with the excellent game play of intentionally losing the Immunity Challenge. Peih-Gee emerged as a player. In future Survivors, however, the show's producers should avoid this type of tribal reshuffle. A different remix of the teams with at least equal numbers ending up on each new team would have been better and would not have left such a bad aftertaste. Aaron was shanghaied!

Todd and Amanda, who had been portrayed so far in this series as tough strategists, should have thought of the intentional loss move. As players who seemed adept in planning ahead, they should have foreseen that their close ally Aaron would be in jeopardy. An initial Fei Long mistake, however, was in kidnapping Sherea and not Erik. Ironically this was where Leslie, the only Fei Long to have seen the dynamics of the opposing tribe, might have made a valuable contribution. If Sherea, Zhan Hu's weakest in social game skills, had been left on Zhan Hu, she might have bonded with Aaron and James or she might have balked at throwing the Immunity challenge. Peih-Gee or Jaime might have been voted out instead of Aaron.

One interesting development in China is that there are now two opposing alliances of good game strategists, perhaps a first for Survivor: Todd and Amanda vs. Peih-Gee and Jaime. If the merge comes soon, (historically at 10 remaining Survivors when there are 16 at the start), the next Tribal Council will prove critical for Peih-Gee and Jaime, still down 6-5 in numbers. They must eliminate another Fei Long or they are down 6-4 and in danger of being paganged after the merge, the danger that Peih-Gee so wisely foresaw.

A big problem for Peih-Gee, Jaime and Erik is James. He is so outspoken that he is guaranteed to tell his Fei Long friends at the next Reward Challenge about the Immunity Challenge and what happened to Aaron. Fei Long, however, most likely will have already figured things out. Jaime's incredibly bad acting at the Immunity loss was hard to miss.

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