Returning to camp after Kat’s elimination with a slightly higher average IQ, the survivors spend the requisite amount of time crowing about her departure, with overtones of regret: Wasn’t it rich when Kat snarked about blindsides, and other assorted night-vision mumbles that probably should have been subtitled? Tarzan, incredulous at the fact that he’s still around despite being (a) a man, and (b) a sort of offensive creature in general, opines to the camera that the women have made an error by keeping him, and now he might be able to slither his way into the final three. Maybe he’s got something there! Maybe he should keep doing grody things like wearing dirty underpants on his head and someone else’s befouled pink tank top and defending that action with some blathering about microbes! Why doesn’t he call someone a bitch for good measure, just to be extra charming and make sure he sails on through to the end? But more on that later.

After the sensory treat that was last week’s Survivor: One World, it was no surprise that last night’s episode was sort of a letdown, more like one of those parties where the beer never gets quite cold enough in the fridge for the mountains to turn blue than an all-night extravaganza at Mick Jagger’s mansion. That’s okay; the game doesn’t snake through the flats of suburbia, but rather wanders down the cul-de-sacs and into the canyons of life on an island with people you don’t really like, chasing a million dollars and the chance to appear in all-stars follow-ups.