39 Days, 20 People, 1 Survivor Episode 1 It’s here! The highly anticipated, hotly debated, new season of: Survivor. Tonight we got our first look at the four tribes we’ve heard so much about. For the show, the tribes have all been given cuter, shorter, nicknames. So for the rest of our time together, I will adopt these names as well. Our tribes are: Hiki (African-American) Aitu (Latino) Puka (Asian-American) Raro (Caucasian) The show opens on rough seas, with the 20 castaways and Jeff cutting through the sea on a large sailing ship. More than a few of them look pretty green, and are probably already wondering why exactly they signed up for this gig. They’ve already been divided into the four tribes, and so have been told about the “unique” criteria by which they’ve all been divided. (I was kind of hoping that we would get to see the moment that this twist was announced to the players. Forget about how we all felt about it, how did THEY feel about it the moment they discovered that tribes would be split along ethnic lines??? We get a few glimpses into their thoughts a little later one, but there’s nothing like the first raw reaction to such an unexpected announcement.) The adventure for these seasick twenty then officially begins with the clanging of a bell, and the announcement that they have exactly two minutes to salvage whatever they can from the ship, cut free their color-coded rafts, jump overboard, and begin paddling to each of their designated islands. Whoo-hoo! Chaos begins! You suddenly see twenty startled, disorientated, and frantic strangers crawling over the deck of the ship grabbing at whatever they can. There are bananas, Hawaiian slings, fish traps, live chickens, lanterns, machetes and firewood on board… but not enough to go around. So it’s first come first serve, and whichever tribe can grab the most, gets the most. This is where our first inter-tribal “incident” occurs. Yul of the Puka tribe sees a chicken fly off into the sea, and leaps off the ship after it. It’s a little crazy and hard to follow, but he somehow gets it back to the ship… and then as time runs out and everyone has to get their butts off board, his tribe goes to grab the chicken, and it’s not there. Jonathan from the Raro tribe has made away with it, and jumps overboard to his raft with it in his hands. There’s too much at stake however for the Puka tribe to cry over spilt chicken, so with Jeff screaming at any of those still dawdling to “GET OVERBOARD!” the teams start furiously paddling to shore. It’s actually a bit visually startling to see the size of the waves that are rolling under the four rafts as they slowly pull away from the ship. For the first time in all of the seasons, these poor guys really do resemble stranded castaways… as they cling on to their rafts and meager possessions, and slowly try and make their way to dry land. Then of course the fact that they all volunteered for this, and that someone is going home with a check for a million dollars, roars back into mind… and the concern and empathy evaporates, just like that! As they are all paddling to shore, they cut away to interviews with some of the Survivors, and we hear their reactions to finding out that the tribes were going to be split along ethnic lines. From the Aitu tribe, Ozzy’s first impresson was that it would probably be hard because “as a people of the same ethnicity, they might clash on things.” Sundra from Hiki tribe very diplomatically stated she could care less about the tribal divisions, because “surviving is a human effort.” (I see a T-shirt in the making) Yul from the Puka tribe seemed the most taken-aback by the groupings. By his own admission, he was “stunned” by the announcement. He thought it was a great opportunity that more minorities were participating in the challenge, but was concerned that the situation might “play out to caricatures and stereotypes.” Pavarti from the Raro tribe is shown smiling… always. While sitting on the raft while the rest of her team paddles in, she screams and giggles as the stolen chicken she is holding struggles in her arms. They then cut to her sitting on a log, giving her thoughts on the tribal divisions. “Different ethnic groups… is that Kosher?” Ahhh… smiling Pavarti. You’ve voiced the very question that everyone has been debating for the last couple of weeks.